Halloween Could Be Really, Really Spooky This Year -- Day 11 Of The Government Shutdown; October 17 Was The Drop-Dead Date

Before the government shutdown, the SecTreasury said the US would run out of cash on October 17th, 2013. But then the government shutdown furloughed 800,000 government workers (at $300/day x 800,000 workers = $250 million/day in savings. And then it was reported that in the first 9 days of the shutdown, the government collected $56 billion in tax receipts and will not send out refunds during the government shutdown. So, all things being equal, the "drop-dead date" might have shifted a bit to the right, perhaps Monday, October 21. Of course, I doubt anyone really knows, and I doubt any government official that gives us a "drop-dead date" has any clue. They can't even get monthly labor statistics right.

We've seen this movie before, as they say. The president will take this right down to the wire, and, of course, Congress knows that. So, all proposals to raise the debt ceiling between now and the "drop-dead date" are simply gambits. One thing we know for sure: the government shutdown will go into a third week.

I see the president has ordered the traffic cones blocking the turnouts to view Mount Rushmore to be removed. I believe the military memorials in Washington, DC, are still off limits. The president also signed a bill to pay military death benefits. I'm trying to think of something that was "meaner" than the president initially refusing to pay military death benefits to surviving spouses/families. The only thing I can think of is Harry Reid's asking why "we" should open the NIH to care for a child with cancer during the shutdown. We've come a long way since the Camelot days of JFK.

But I digress. The point I was going to make before I got off-track is this: no one knows the exact "drop-dead date" but it exists. And unlike delaying a decision on the Keystone XL, this is one issue on which the president can dither for only so long. 

About seven days. 

However it turns out, it was good to see the president ordering those traffic cones removed.  

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GOP establishment blames the Tea Party. 

Young Turks, Rod Stewart