Catallaxy Files

As Newt Gingrich points out, US Government shutdowns have a long history. There were 12 under former Speaker Tip O’Neill when Ronald Reagan was President. The shutdown is a result of a funding gap where the US Congress fails to pass the Budget presented by the executive branch. While Australia came close to a shutdown in 1975, with delays in the passage of the supply bills, we have not enjoyed a period of Government shutdown.

The longest shutdown period in the United States was 21 days from 15 December 1995 to 6 January 1996. Gingrich was the Speaker.

While these periods of shutdown are little more than an annoyance, the concept could be relied upon elsewhere. For example, why not shutdown the OECD, UNESCO, UN, IMF and World Bank?

As has been noted many times in the Cat, there has been substantial mission creep in these international organisations. Their civil servants enjoy large tax-free salaries (with the exception of US citizens working at international organisations who are required to pay taxes to the US government). They have moved well beyond their founding frameworks and mandates and no international organisation has been put to the sword since 1946.

The League of Nations was disbanded in 1946, with the final motion agreed

The League of Nations shall cease to exist except for the purpose of the liquidation of its affairs.

and its resources sent to the newly formed United Nations.

Can there be any doubt that international organisations have evolved to serve the interests of their employees rather than members? But how can we rid ourselves of organisations which have long since passed their use-by-date?

Take the OECD. There are too many vested interests who lobby for its continuation, from the employees to the Ambassadors sent from member states. It would be difficult, if not impossible, to reach a consensus to terminate the OECD.

But the shutdown option could be a start. Australia could set the example by ceasing to fund the OECD and withdrawing our delegation from Paris. Other countries might join Australia, starving the OECD of funds. Let’s not forget it has a massive liability in its pension fund, with many of its older employees retiring over the next decade or so. Unlike a Government, the OECD and other international organisation cannot impose a tax. If member states withdraw or refuse to finance the OECD, it would quickly become bankrupt.

Even a temporary shutdown of an international organisation could be helpful, showing the world how unnecessary the organisations have become.

The shutdown. A glorious US initiative that could be expanded internationally.

But there are other things he can do and he’s doing them. This is so brazen that Obama obviously could not care less who you are or what you do. If you are his enemy then you will be done over and what are you or anyone else going to do about it?

It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to know that the IRS audit of Dr. Ben Carson can’t be a mere coincidence. . . .

Carson on Wednesday told Fox’s Bill O’Reilly that the IRS began examining his real estate holdings after his speech to the National Prayer Breakfast in February, in which he used tithing in the Bible to make a compelling case against progressive taxation. A humiliated Obama sat steaming a couple of seats away.

Then there’s the NSA Surveillance program that not only can but does track phone calls and emails. I just tried googling “NSA Surveillance” to find a statement of the problems it causes and it creeps me out to find that I could not easily locate a posting that was critical of the program. This is the best I could find and this was in an article defending the NSA:

The NSA has been in the centre of a firestorm since the Snowden leaks, which revealed wide-ranging programs which scoop up data on telephone calls and Internet activity.

I’m sure we all feel protected by governments that know what we are saying to each other by phone, fax or email.

And then, with the closing of non-essential government services there are many instances just like this:

The Park Service appears to be closing streets on mere whim and caprice. The rangers even closed the parking lot at Mount Vernon, where the plantation home of George Washington is a favorite tourist destination. That was after they barred the new World War II Memorial on the Mall to veterans of World War II. But the government does not own Mount Vernon; it is privately owned by the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association. The ladies bought it years ago to preserve it as a national memorial. The feds closed access to the parking lots this week, even though the lots are jointly owned with the Mount Vernon ladies. The rangers are from the government, and they’re only here to help.

‘It’s a cheap way to deal with the situation,’ an angry Park Service ranger in Washington says of the harassment. ‘We’ve been told to make life as difficult for people as we can. It’s disgusting.’

Sure it’s disgusting but it’s not just politics as usual or at least it wasn’t until now. The full resources of the American government are being used in a punitive way against individuals and groups, against American citizens who disagree with the President. In reading not just the American media but even the right side blogs, the most astonishing part is the absence of expressions of genuine outrage. Maybe with the American media as latently totalitarian as it is there is nothing that can be done, and maybe no one writing a blog wants to be done over by the tax office, but if it doesn’t make you seriously angry, and not just a little frightened, I don’t know what would.