TPs to "defund" Govt.?

[AFTP]

While I understand the frustration with the Govt. shut down, I'm seeing more BS of defunding the system.
People are advocating not paying taxes to do this on social media.
My response is "how do you plan on doing that?"

After all most wont stop filing a return because most will get money back and don't want to lose it and other are afraid of jail.
It's their boss that withholds money for taxes and they wont risk their business for the "cause".

Thoughts?

[LaVidaRoja]

The type of thing that many people will avidly talk about until they're faced with the realities/practicalities of it. A few (a very few) might change their withholding so that they don't have any refunds coming. A few bosses might decide to treat them as independent contractors (that'll work until somebody gets laid off and tries to collect unemployment) Mostly, all it will produce is a lot of hot air.

[fortinbras]

I am unclear whether the TP in the caption means Tax Protesters or Tea Partiers.

Either way, the current crisis has indicated that when the going gets crazy then the crazy get going. I have seen frighteningly amateurish and shallow economic theories and 'explanations' on the internet in the last week. These generally emulate the wisdom of trying to put out a fire with gasoline.

I wish to point out, in a Very Serious way, that the govt in 1979 resolved a debt ceiling crisis with more time than remains to us now, but the amount of time left before deadline was so short that, in the next week or so, the govt could not print out and send its payments (to T-bond holders and the like) until a few days past the proper payment date, and the recipients thereupon demanded extra viggorish from the govt to represent interest and late payment penalties. This represented millions of dollars. It cost the govt to pay off these people -- and the result of missing payday by a few days was such that the Treasury bonds thereafter had to gazump up the promised interest rate by about ½% and that higher rate has been in place to this day; it may not seem like much but it adds up to billions that the govt has to spend and cannot keep to help balance the budget.

[Olsenfin]

[Moderator: The Observer - Post deleted due to violating the site rule against political commentary.]

[Duke2Earl]

All I will say here on this subject is that in my personal opinion, failure to extend the debt ceiling would be a very serious error that would cost us all. I believe that the vast majority of economists and financial experts agree with me. I believe that those who hold contrary opinions do not fully understand the situation and what they are playing with.

[Pottapaug1938]

This business about tax protestors deciding to "defund" the government reminds me of a protest march which I saw in Boston years ago. I forget what the issue was; but when I watched the march go my I saw this ragged faction try to, essentially, hijack the whole thing. Some time later, I was given one of their leaflets in which there was a picture of the march, with the group's banner prominently featured just behind the front. The text of the leaflet included the assertion that the other groups in the march were marching in solidarity with the faction and its ideology. My guess is that the faction probably split up, eventually, due to ideological squabbles.

I have no doubt that a few of the TP crazies out there are now seeing a similar opportunity to Be In The Vanguard Of The Movement To Kill The Tax Beast.

[fortinbras]

(We have a friend who left her private business job for a govt job just as the shutdown started - she is for the time being in limbo, not yet on the federal payroll but out of her former job, so she has for the moment no insurance coverage, no money for groceries or rent, and no assurance of any retroactive anything when the crisis lifts.) Welcome to "You Asked For It"!

With regard to the landmarks, people far from DC may not have heard but only a few months ago, in July, someone managed to vandalize the Lincoln Memorial and the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception (at DC's Catholic University) by splashing green paint on stuff. They arrested someone, who appears to be homeless and/or nuts. It will cost at least a few thousand to clean off the paint in both places so no damage can be seen. With that in mind, it would be extremely foolhardy to just let people wander around the landmarks without some sort of supervision and help (for example with any sort of first aid situation). The Constitution requires the govt to do a lot of things but not operate amusements and tourist spots, so guess which activity is considered less essential. I think it is worth noting that various people with axes to grind have focused all the attention on the WW2 Memorial when there are many other places that attract people, often in groups and usually more than the WW2 Memorial, such as the Holocaust Museum and the Library of Congress.

Even if the crisis were fixed this very moment, the situation is such that a lot of govt payments would miss the proper deadlines by a day or two or three. Those late payments have legal and financial consequences, none of them good for the govt.

While, inside the US this may be seen as the fault (or, more the fault) of one party, in foreign countries it is being taken as evidence that, regardless of who's in charge, the US govt sometimes goes stupid and is not a reliable partner or leader in a number of fields.

[Moderator: The Observer - Political references were removed from the post since they violated the "no politics/no religion" rule for this site.]

[The Observer]

After having to edit or delete 2 posts on this thread, and considering the fact that the thread has drifted from the original point of whether tax protestors are advocating using the shutdown as a reason to "defund" the government, the thread is being locked.