SHUTDOWNS
		..........Every time the federal government cannot resolve the next year's budget, the establishment media begins talking about possible government shutdowns. It's getting to be a yearly occurrence and something of a joke. .....................................................................Never happen ..........The federal government has never shut down over budget negotiations, and probably never will. A mechanism called a "continuing resolution" makes this almost impossible. ..........For a shutdown to happen, Congress would have to neglect asking for an extension of time to work on the budget, or the President would have to refuse to sign such a request. It would represent negligence in the extreme. ..........Continuing resolution means that spending will continue on the basis of last year's budget allocations. Whatever last year's budget called for will be used as a budget until the new one is resolved. It's that simple. ..................................................................Cause of shutdowns ..........What caused the shutdown in 1995 was the refusal to raise the debt ceiling; i.e., the federal government could not borrow additional money on the open market. It just so happened that, in 1995, we reached the national debt limit of $4.9 trillion in November while, during the same period, the budget for fiscal 1996 had not been resolved either, even though the fiscal year ended on September 30th as usual. ..........In fiscal 1996, the federal government ran a deficit of $23 billion. That means in order to make ends meet the government borrowed $23 billion by selling Treasury securities on the open market; i.e., individual investors loaned the money. ..........Now, $23 billion may not seem like much in terms of the $1.6 trillion the government took in that year. But it was enough to put a serious crimp in operations during November and December of 1995, particularly when they were operating under a continuing resolution that meant they were using the last year's budget allocations. Fiscal '95 ran a much larger deficit. ..........Perhaps now you can see why only the "nonessential" workers had to be sent home. Reimbursed later for a paid vacation. ..........................................................................Not again ..........In early 1996, the new debt ceiling was fixed at $5.5 trillion, a figure we surpassed last year. When the popular "Balanced Budget Act" was passed in 1997, John Kasich, chairman of the House Budget Committee, made certain that we would not get into this mess again, at least not for awhile. On page 336 of that popular bill, Kasich inserted a clause that raised the debt ceiling to $5.9 trillion. No one even noticed. ...............................................................................Why ..........So why does the establishment media, particularly the Clinton News Network (CNN) keep bringing up the possibility of a "government shutdown" whenever Congress and the Administration can't agree on a budget? ..........I can only think of two reasons. Either they're just plain dumb or they want to keep you from looking at the national debt figures. ..........Just after the close of the last fiscal year, the Bureau of Public Debt reported that the national debt had risen $130 billion during fiscal 1999. Isn't that contrary to what Clinton and Gore are telling you? Aren't they claiming to have "paid down" the national debt?