Hattrick

The following excerpt from the Washington Post discusses an American politician and Speaker of the United States House of Representatives - Rep. Tip O'Neill who was an outspoken liberal Democrat and influential member of the House of Representatives, serving for 34 years and representing two congressional districts in Massachusetts. He served as Speaker of the House from 1977 until his retirement in 1987.

"The government shut down seven times when O'Neill was speaker and Reagan was president. And they were real shutdowns, too, given that they occurred after Jimmy Carter's attorney general, Benjamin Civiletti, issued opinions in 1980 and 1981 saying that funding gaps had to lead to at least partial shutdowns of government functions. Five quasi-shutdowns happened before those opinions under O'Neill's watch, with Carter as president. And one more shutdown happened under Reagan and O'Neill's successor as speaker, Jim Wright.

If your metric for quality governance is "ability to avoid shutdowns," then Reagan is absolutely the worst president of the modern era. The government shut down eight times under his watch, more than any other president, representing nearly half of all shutdowns that have occurred under the modern budget process. And O'Neill is an even worse speaker, if that's our criterion. He presided over 12 funding gaps or shutdowns, or almost 71 percent of all shutdowns to date."

washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/09/26/sorry-chris-matthews-tip-oneill-and-ronald-reagan-were-terrible-at-averting-shutdowns/

Putting aside all the political rhetoric from both sides today, reality is the following facts;

1) the House originates all spending bills per the US Constitution.
2) the House is an equal and separate elected branch of government.
3) the framers of the US Constitution purposely gave the House the power of the purse string to originate all spending bills for funding of government branches, agencies and programs so as to be able to exert the people's will if need be.

Representatives are closest to the people and can best carry-out the wishes of the people on a year-to-year basis. Also at that time, the Senate was the "States" body of appointed representatives who did not represent the people, rather, the interests of the States.

The House, known as the People's House, was designed by the founders to do exactly what this and many other Congresses have done when the people became unhappy with their government's actions. Government shut downs have been used as leverage to change seemingly simple things like regulations regarding the trucking industry.

Historically when there is a disagreement between any of the three separate and equal branches of government, a conference is held to negotiate an agreement and the Act then goes on to become law.

Today we have a Congress seeking to alter an unpopular law in response to their constituent?s wishes. Yet it is the political party who has used government shutdowns the most in America?s history crying foul and refusing to enter into any Conference to negotiate a settlement that would keep the people?s government operating; something which our Democracy demands.

Whether you like ObamaCare or not, any American should be appalled that two branches of their government are attempting to usurp the powers of the third branch and in the process denying the People their constitutional protected voice.

Examination of Democratic Rep. Tip O?Neill?s history with government shutdowns goes to show that the extremist far-left in America is nothing but hypocritical by screaming hostage when their political opposition uses the same tactics they have used over-and-over to bring about negotiations. If Democrats wanted to really overt a government shutdown, they would have at least showed up for a Conference; as has happened countless times throughout America?s legislative history. Yet they won?t even talk. This is not how Democracy works in America.