It’s been almost two years since Washington-based politicians shut down the government. The 16-day timeout in October 2013 hit everyone from tour guides and federal workers to Alaska crab fisherman, coal miners, government contractors and kids who get free school breakfasts.

After the shutdown was over, federal civil servants, chief pawns in the game of budget bluff, still got paid for not working. Like so many money-saving exercises, it wound up costing taxpayers a ton.

Some people see parallels between what goes on here in political Washington with poop hurling battles that allegedly take place among the apes in the wild. Or with bored residents at the zoo.

After the 2013 game of political chicken on Capitol Hill, both tribes — called the Republicans and Democrats — took a break. The year 2014 was shutdown and furlough-free! Both sides took a lot of heat. But memories of the bad press and voter reaction seem to have faded. Both sides, for different (but basically political) reasons appear to be prepping for another October surprise.

Each side claims to have right on its side. Republicans, again, want to cut funding for the Internal Revenue Service. It’s claim to fame and curse is that it is the chief collector of revenue for the government. Many in the GOP are still angry over what they say were blatant attempts by some IRS officials to harass or shut down some political tea party operations. Borrowing from the Clinton years, they said it was a vast left-wing conspiracy run out of Washington — not an isolated operation in Cincinnati.

Democrats say the Lois Lerner affair was, at worst, a localized minor operation that was demonized all out of proportion. They say it is really part of an ongoing GOP exercise to make life for and at the IRS as miserable as possible.

House Republicans are pushing for an 8 percent cut in IRS funds for the upcoming fiscal year. In the Senate, they want to link a cybersecurity bill (of special interest thanks to the recent governmentwide computer hack) to higher Defense spending.

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has publicly warned, “We’re headed for another shutdown,” making clear as always that if it happens it will be the fault of the GOP.

Bright spot? The one bright spot for federal civilian workers is the lack of interest in a 2016 pay raise. The fact that it hasn’t been made part of the debate, so far at least, makes it more likely that the raise proposed by President Barack Obama (1.3 percent in January) might actually happen.

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NEARLY USELESS FACTOID

By Michael O’Connell

Researchers at Emory University believe that poop throwing may be a sign of higher intelligence among chimpanzees. After comparing brain scans of throwers to non- throwers, researchers noticed heightened development of the motor cortex among chimp throwers. They also saw more links between the motor cortex and Broca’s area, which is an important part of the human brain in relation to speech. The better chimp throwers, in the end, had more highly developed left brain hemispheres, which is the part of the brain humans use to process speech.

Source: Phys.org

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