Shut it down, part 978

For what seems like the 978th time this year, the federal government will (partially) shut down on Friday night unless congress acts. Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, indicated that this wasn’t cause for concern:

“There is no reason for anyone to talk about shutting down the government when this Congress has seven times previously this year shown its willingness to pass a short-term [continuing resolution] in order to allow for a little more time to get its work done… We don’t even need to get to that point, but if we were, later in the week, to be in that situation, then they should just pass a short-term CR to ensure that there’s no disruption in the functioning of government, and then finish their business.”

Or to put it another way, “Congress has proven it is too incompetent to do its most basic job seven times, I’m sure they’ll do it an 8th”.

I could try and write an actual post about this, but the following clip from The West Wing will much more succinctly illustrate what I would like to say:

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