August 9, 2023
3%
CASPER, Wyo. — Rocky Mountain Power, the state’s largest electric utility, is proposing to raise its energy rates by 29.2%.
Subway sandwich chain sells itself to Dunkin’ owner Roark Capital
Subsidiarity Economics. The Shutdown edition.
September 28, 2023
Kevin McCarthy should hang his head in shame.
What all will close, assuming that the House doesn't get its act together today, isn't clear. Some things will, but "vital" things apparently will not. Some Federal employees will be asked to work without pay, which is interesting, as working without pay is involuntary servitude, and was banned by a post Civil War constitutional amendment.
Congress, oddly, will get paid.
The mail will continue to be delivered, as the U.S. Post Office funds itself.
Arizona and Utah have voted to spend state funds to keep their National Parks open. Senator John Barrasso asked the Secretary of the Interior to use park entry fees to do the same.
Fat Bear Week is off due to the dysfunctional House of Representatives having been taken hostage by populists.
Government contracts and modifications to contracts will not be issued.
Medicaid will continue to be paid. Medicare will continue on.
The FHA will have limited staff and loans it processes will be delayed.
The SBA will shut down.
The ATF might not process background checks, which may lead to a complete halt on the sale of firearms by licensed firearm's dealers.
The latter is the thing that Wyomingites are likely to complain about right away. People in industries supported by tourism are likely to notice the closure of the parks rapidly.
All of this, of course, is because this will be a managed shut down, which is really a limited shutdown or a slow-down. If things continue for some time, and this time they might, a real shutdown may creep in, which Wyomingites, in spite of apparently disdaining the Federal Government, would really feel. A closure of the airports, for example, could be expected at some point, And a cessation of petroleum production on Federal lands due to a lack of Federal oversight. Perhaps a cessation of grazing on the Federal domain for the same reason. And a lack of highway funds.
None of that will happen rapidly, of course. Or maybe at all.
September 30, 2023.
We’re likely to avert a shutdown, but the clown show continues
Let the grousing now being.
Not from Reich, with whom I obviously have a love/hate relationship, but from the MAGA far right out in the hinterlands, who will be outraged, outraged I tell you, and they'll tell you on their way from the television to the refirgerator for a Coors Lite (can't touch that Bud, of course) who would, they'll say, have enjoyed the shutdown. . .right up until they didn't, and then somehow, it would have been the Democrats fault.Congress passed a 45-day stopgap spending bill yesterday. In doing so, Speaker McCarthy noted:
We’re going to be adults in the room. And we’re going to keep government open.
Tonight, bipartisan majorities in the House and Senate voted to keep the government open, preventing an unnecessary crisis that would have inflicted needless pain on millions of hardworking Americans. This bill ensures that active-duty troops will continue to get paid, travelers will be spared airport delays, millions of women and children will continue to have access to vital nutrition assistance, and so much more. This is good news for the American people.But I want to be clear: we should never have been in this position in the first place. Just a few months ago, Speaker McCarthy and I reached a budget agreement to avoid precisely this type of manufactured crisis. For weeks, extreme House Republicans tried to walk away from that deal by demanding drastic cuts that would have been devastating for millions of Americans. They failed.While the Speaker and the overwhelming majority of Congress have been steadfast in their support for Ukraine, there is no new funding in this agreement to continue that support. We cannot under any circumstances allow American support for Ukraine to be interrupted. I fully expect the Speaker will keep his commitment to the people of Ukraine and secure passage of the support needed to help Ukraine at this critical moment.
McCarthy had to rely on Democrats to pass the bill, and will now surely face an effort aimed at his removal by his hard right.
October 4, 2023
Facebook's parent company Meta is laying off 11,000 employees.
October 5, 2023
75,000 Kaiser Permanente employees went on strike Wednesday. Staffing levels are an issue.
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