GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN ENDS AND EVERYONE GETS BACK TO WORK. NOW WHAT?

The shutdown is over. Wheeeeee! Mind you this is good news for the millions of people directly affected by this action, which should have never happened in the first place. Stories of businesses closing, especially near the closed state parks, are examples that this shutdown wasn't as harmless as a smirking Sean Hannity spewed this week in his horrific show. One night this week, he had a studio filled with can only be described as several token black men among the usual white Southerners, to discuss the budget crisis. One man described as a "conservative commentator," crowed that the shutdown hadn't been as bad as predicted and neither was the debt ceiling, showing a level of incompetence hard to comprehend. This unneeded hit to a fragile economy was solely at the feet of the GOP and, even more so, the Tea Party.

The shutdown cost taxpayers $22 billion dollars. That's $22 billion that is not going to Head Start, or Social Security, or even tax cuts. It fell into that black hole called Washington, never to be seen again. And it never had to happen. As I pointed out yesterday, had the Republicans done nothing, absolutely nothing, they could have pounced over the fact that the Healthcare website didn't work, which in and of itself is yet another round of government hand outs that have come to bite us in the ass.

I am not talking about programs for the poor but corporate welfare which is costing us a lot more. I will give the GOP a breather for few paragraphs while I expose how Washington, regardless of party, is constantly giving away our tax dollars to people who should never have gotten in the first place. As much as I hate to agree with anyone from the right lately, Solyndra was a project doomed to failure before production had even begun. And states like Rhode Island giving $75 million to Kurt Shilling's stupid video game company is the ultimate in pissing away tax dollars for pipe dreams and corruption.

So here is CGI Federal, a newcomer to the US government contracts since 2008. They are a mutli-billion, multi-national company, based in Montreal, providing IT services to major corporations like Bell Canada. Here's the rub about this whole thing: much like Solyndra, this company was not something we should have invested in in the first place. It's attempt to set up a medical registry in Ontario Canada for diabetic sufferers was so badly botched that they got fired from the $46 million dollar contract after three missed deadlines. Sound familiar?

Finger pointing is all around with CGI saying the project was underfunded and others blaming Health and Human Services for taking forever with specifications for the site. But the fact of the matter remains that the site was poorly constructed with multiple code writers confirming that whole pieces of code were missing, tanking the project from day one. But again, part of the problem was the federal government insisting that multiple parties design the site making it twice as hard as there were way too many cooks in the kitchen, slowing the whole process. All in all, we spent at least $394 million, which is far less than the $678 CGI did get(and right wingers erroneously keep saying) albeit for other projects not health care related.

This is why nothing works in Washington. Contracts are given out piecemeal to whatever contractors can buy into the system. It doesn't matter that these people are completely incompetent or that by opening up these contracts to outside bids would save the country money and get a better deal in the process. And did this fuck up hurt CGI in anyway? Hell no, their stock went way up as they still hold several major US contracts and are expected to get more. Unbelievable.

Both sides are guilty of this nonsense and it has to stop. Nobody wants to change anything as the economy is now just a house of cards with strong winds ready to topple it. Can't change this because people will lose their jobs. Can't change that because it'll make rednecks cry. Can't do this because it might actually work. We have to stop being the people of CAN'T anymore. If the GOP hates Obamacare so much, they have to have a proposal of their own or shut the fuck up already. If the Tea Party wants to cut Social Security so bad, they can feel free to donate their money to a worthy cause, like this site. I am always looking for donations out there people. This site doesn't run on love alone.

Most importantly, we have to get rid of every douchebag who voted against re-opening the government. Here's all the names from the Senate:

Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) • John Cornyn (R-Texas) • Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) • Ted Cruz (R-Texas) • Mike Enzi (R-Wy.) • Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) • Dean Heller (R-Nev.) • Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) • Mike Lee (R-Utah) • Rand Paul (R-Ky.) • James Risch (R-Idaho) • Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) • Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) • Tim Scott (R-S.C.) • Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) • Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) • Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) • David Vitter (R-La.) Wave goodbye to them in 2014 and beyond.