Thank You, Democrats!

Washington, D.C.  As leaves turn and autumn weather rolls over the capital, a Democrat president looks towards the Congress, where the House and the Senate are engaged in a bitter legislative battle over health care.  A key point of this contention: abortion funding.

Driven by member of the House who oppose the use of  federal tax dollars to fund abortions, disagreement between the chambers of Congress creates a legislative deadlock.  Although the House passes legislation to keep the federal government funded and running, the Senate refuses to pass any proposed compromise legislation that does not include federal funding for abortion.  As a result, the federal government is left unfunded.  While most offices are kept open, all non-essential workers are temporarily furloughed until the issue is resolved, and Congress can pass an appropriations bill.

The year?  1977.  In three separate events that fall, the federal government was shut down for over five work weeks while the Democrat-controlled House battled the Democrat-controlled Senate over over the Hyde Amendment [1].  A few years later, based on a interpretation of the Anti-Deficiency Act of 1884,  the Carter administration ruled to limit the power of unfunded federal agencies, thus requiring the shutdown of non-essential functions of the federal government in the absence of Congressional  appropriations.

Now, your political inclinations may lead you to side with one side or the other in the 1977 debate over the Hyde amendment.  You may also argue that the Carter-era ruling on the ADA was either entirely appropriate or hideously incorrect.  Be that as it may, you cannot deny this fundamental truth:

The current government shutdown would not - could not - exist, were it not for the actions of the Democrat party in the fall of 1977, and the Carter administration's ruling on the ADA.

So here's a hearty "Thank you!" to the Democrats of years gone by, who made it possible for the current House to not only force the issue on the funding of the ACA, but also seriously torque off Harry Reid.  Because seeing Harry froth at the mouth in frustration is one of the gifts that just keeps on giving, y'know?

[1] Just a quick question: were the Democrats in the House who opposed federal abortion funding then wrong, or are the Democrats in the House who support federal abortion funding now wrong?  Inquiring minds want to know!