For those of you who claim to support our troops and law enforcement, the near shutdown of government services could have been especially significant.
You may want to remember the names of Clay Higgins and Mike Johnson during the 2024 voting. They are two of six members of the Louisiana House of Representatives delegation. While members Garret Graves, Julia Letlow, Steve Scalise and Troy Carter all voted in favor of the last-minute bill to avert the shutdown, Johnson and Higgins each voted against passage of the emergency measure.
Not only could about 2 million active-duty servicemembers be required to continue working with no paycheck, but certain law enforcement activities would cease entirely. There are a lot of military personnel who live in Johnson’s district and Higgins likes to boast of his experience as a cop. Seems a bit ironic — and hypocritical — that they would vote against those interests.
That was the very real threat facing America if the right-wing Republican push for a shutdown had occurred at midnight Saturday. And it still could happen because the temporary funding bill passed at the 11th hour (Congress seems to favor working that way) only provides temporary funding of government for 45 days, or until Nov. 17.
After that, who knows? It could still happen in much the same manner as the shutdown orchestrated by Newt Gingrich in 1995 or the Donald Trump paralyzing shutdown of 2018-2019.
Should that happen, mail delivery could come to a halt, and we could see a significant slowdown in social security and Medicare/Medicaid complaint resolutions, Special Supplemental Nutrition Program meals for women, infants and children (WIC). Food pantries and food banks would be overrun (again) as federal employees from law enforcement to health care workers would find themselves without paychecks.
Air travel could be adversely impacted because of a shortage of air traffic controllers and TSA lines could become bogged down if screeners begin staying home because of no paychecks.
Had Speaker Kevin McCarthy not cratered, thus infuriating the MAGA-right wingnuts, we would have seen an ugly repeat of the disruption of our lives on a scale similar to ’95 and 2018-19. For those of us with short memories, it would’ve been a jolting reminder.
The likes of Matt Gaetz, Boebert and MJT wouldn’t really care: their staff members would keep working – without pay, of course. But federal and state joint task force efforts to stop drug and human trafficking would come to an abrupt halt, as would anti-terrorist investigations.
Federal disaster assistance (remember those fires, the earthquakes, hurricanes, drought, and the occasional tornado? Those are all disasters where the federal government steps in to help victims.) would come to a screeching halt.
But that’s still okay. Johnson and Higgins preferred a shutdown over sanity.
| Louisiana | |||
| Yea | LA 1st | R | Scalise, Steve |
| Yea | LA 2nd | D | Carter, Troy |
| Nay | LA 3rd | R | Higgins, Clay |
| Nay | LA 4th | R | Johnson, Mike |
| Yea | LA 5th | R | Letlow, Julia |
| Yea | LA 6th | R | Graves, Garret |
Louisiana Voice 
Our problem is that the Dems do not field candidates strong enough to compete with “Jesus Boy Mike”. He has a solid church vote and ran unopposed last time. I am not sure why Dems have skipped out of their responsibility but there it is….much to the negative impact on Louisiana! All I ever get from the State Dem Office is to send them donations….Any solutions???
You are absolutely correct. I was wondering the same thing. Unfortunately, I can offer no solutions.
There are two dynamics at play. First is ignorant, fascist voters who choose to live in an disinformation alternate reality where Joe Biden stole the election and heads up a crime family – despite ZERO evidence to support either claim – while the legitimate president Trump is a persecuted Christian patriot – despite mountains of evidence to the contrary. Those voters can’t possibly make a good choice except by accident. The second dynamic at play is the utter cowardice of elected “Republicans” in safe, gerrymandered districts selling out anyway so they don’t get primaried by someone with more claim to the ignorant fascist vote. One could hope that men and women with principles they’re willing to stand up for, instead of just pay lip service to, will run for office but there’s no fix for voters whose only belief is that they are entitled to wallow in their prejudices. Nor should anyone be fooled by Scalise, Graves, and Letlow. All three are perfectly willing to sell out. They just didn’t this time.
I wish I had the talent to think and write like Mr. Spillman!! There is one other very strong dynamic of systemic racism. I am very encouraged with our Democratic candidates. Keep learning and keep loving! ron thompson
I have finally come to the realization the Trumpsters have one goal and no plan if it succeeds: Destroy the current system.
People like Johnson and Kennedy know what they are doing. They are not ignorant. They are destructive.
The U. S. Congress has allowed the radical element to steer its actions – it certainly doesn’t have to, but it does. And, what was its plan after removing a vital government element yesterday? Going home for a week. We have never been in as much peril as now.