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Noem Shutdown Hurts Business, GDP, Jobs

John Tsitrian says Congresswoman Kristi Noem's budget/default kamikaze votes have harmed his business and the whole economy:

Some of my peers in the lodging industry are circulating numbers that show drops of anywhere from 30% to 50% for the shutdown period itself, with smaller but still noticeable losses for the few days immediately preceding the shutdown. In her pursuit of a much larger, if chimerical, agenda of undoing the U.S. government's duly passed and Constitutionally-sanctioned healthcare reform law, Congresswoman Noem is apparently willing to inflict some serious economic pain on her fellow South Dakotans, a notion that I find abhorrent, considering her constituents' best interests should be the main priority in her work as our representative [John Tsitrian, "Congresswoman Noem Sold Us Out," The Constant Commoner, 2013.10.17].

Tsitrian proceeds to question Noem's intellect, education, and compassion. Pat Powers will call that attack deranged; citizens tallying the true economic cost of Noem's GOP politics will call it justified:

  • As Tsitrian notes, Standard and Poor's calculates that the 16-day partial government shutdown drained $24 billion from the economy. Thanks, Kristi.
  • Those costs will multiply, as government workers furloughed this month and businessmen like Tsitrian who took a hit will hesitate to spend big money on Christmas gifts, contributing to a predicted 2% slide in holiday sales. Thanks, Kristi.
  • Policy uncertainty (which Rep. Noem says is awful, just awful!) spiked again this week. The three highest spikes of economy-dampening policy uncertainty in the last three years have all come when Noem and her Republican colleagues have held the government hostage in debt-ceiling brinkmanship. Thanks, Kristi!
  • (Also prolonging business uncertainty: Noem's failure to pass a Farm Bill. Thanks, Michael, for the reminder!)
  • Since Noem rode the Tea Party horse to Congress in 2010, the GOP House's crisi-driven fiscal policy has cost the U.S. economy $700 billion and kept unemployment 1.4 percetange points higher than it would be if people smarter and more focused on the common welfare than Noem were running the House. Paul Krugman calls that the GOP Tax, wealth sucked out of the economy that doesn't do us any good. Thanks, Kristi!

Rep. Kristi Noem spent the day of her "Yay, Default!" vote grandstanding in a committee hearing about cones on the highway inconveniencing tourists and criticizing the National Park Service for not carrying out her government shutdown the way she wanted it carried out. Meanwhile, she voted to continue her party's war against not just the poor, but against the whole American economy.

Say it with me, John, and America: Thanks, Kristi!

Update 11:06 CDT: The Mitchell Daily Republic agrees that Noem was wrong to vote to keep Mount Rushmore closed, FSA agents and Guardsmen off the job, and America in peril of default. Their Thursday night editorial says that even most opponents of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act "want democracy, not anarchy."

23 Comments

  1. owen reitzel 2013.10.18

    THANKS KRISTI!!!!!

  2. Michael B 2013.10.18

    You sure give Mrs. Noem far more power than she really has. South Dakota's lone voice is not big enough to make much difference no matter who fills the seat.

  3. jerry 2013.10.18

    NOem had the power of 1. With that power, she could have signed off on the discharge papers to put forth the CR that would have passed with at least 20 more moderates and the Democratic votes and we all would not be having this discussion. That lone voice you speak of, could have roared. Instead, she showed her full support for this attempted coup. She not only hurt South Dakota, she hurt America by piling on at least another 24 billion in deficit. NO More NOem

  4. caheidelberger Post author | 2013.10.18

    Michael, do you think Kristi wants to run on the slogan, "I have no power, I don't matter, so vote for me"?

    What Jerry said. Votes matter. Ideas matter. Words matter. Kristi's votes, ideas, and words are wrong.

  5. Cranky Old Dude 2013.10.18

    Guvmint borrowed $328B yesterday-an all time one-day record by nearly 50%. That bill to re-animate the zombie was well larded with pork to reward the felons. This aint gonna end well.
    " 'Tis thine they give away and not their own. Pirates may make cheap pennyworths of their pillage, and purchase friends and give to courtesans, still reveling like lords, until all be gone." Wm Shakespeare; HenryVI

  6. Michael B 2013.10.18

    Noem's vote was political just like Obama's was in 2006. In fact during his speech in 2006, he sounds like a Tea Party member.

    “It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our government’s reckless fiscal policies. Over the past five years, our federal debt has increased by $3.5 trillion to $8.6 trillion. That is ‘‘trillion’’ with a ‘‘T.’’ That is money that we have borrowed from the Social Security trust fund, borrowed from China and Japan, borrowed from American taxpayers.”

  7. Roger Cornelius 2013.10.18

    Michael B.

    Perhaps President Obama should have used that quote in his campaigns. He would have instantly won the hearts and souls of Republicans in 2008 and the teapublicans in 2012.
    NOT!

  8. jerry 2013.10.18

    You are correct on what the deficit has ballooned to Michael B. When you have a couple of unfunded wars and an unfunded Part B Medicare and a full bailout of a financial system, huge tax breaks for the gazillionaires, what would you expect but a huge deficit? I am quite sure that I did some things in 2006 that I may not have been proud of just like you may have (there I go, mind reading again) years ago. The President regrets that vote and said so, NOem has not posted any regrets whatsoever. You and Nelson need to get your stories straight on why NOem and 100% of the rest of the republicans voted to shut down the government, she says Obamacare like the rest. What you are saying is the debt, two very different items. I know it is difficult to follow what she says as she is now from the Nutty Palin school of thought. NOem actually has managed to formulate a couple of blurbs and they say Obamacare was the culprit for her hostage taking, you must buck up and pay attention to what drivel she spews. NO More NOem

  9. Michael B 2013.10.18

    Here is what I expect: I want a budget passed by Congress and signed by the President and do it on time.If you can't do the job, resign. No more BS continuing resolution. I expect that if you initiate a program like ObamaCare that you have your shit together and test your website BEFORE you go live. I expect votes to be taken rather than procedural nonsense.

  10. Rorschach 2013.10.18

    I think Rep. Noem is doing this to protect her right flank in the next election. Not necessarily just from a Republican primary challenger, who she would likely dispatch. But more importantly from a tea party challenger running as an independent. Such a challenger moving through to the general election would draw substantially all of their votes from Rep. Noem rather than from any Democrat, making it more likely the Democrat would come out on top (like the Johnson/Thune/Evans race).

    No tea party challenger can "out crazy" Rep. Noem after these last few votes, so no use trying. But it's not out of the question that some sane Republican, possibly one of her former state legislative colleagues, might jump into a primary against her - simply because so few Republicans are satisfied with her overall performance over the course of two terms. There will be a lot of sentiment against incumbents next year. If someone like for instance Majority Leader Dave Lust or House Speaker Brian Gosch primaries Rep. Noem she will be in very deep trouble.

  11. Deb Geelsdottir 2013.10.18

    Thanks Kristi!

  12. Rorschach 2013.10.18

    Rep. Noem claims she was for Hurricane Sandy disaster aid before she was against it. "At the end of the day" she voted against all disaster aid for both Hurricane Sandy and for disasters everywhere else.

    Rep. Noem claims she was against the government shutdown before she was for it. "At the end of the day" she voted to keep it shut down and to default on existing debts.

    Rep. Noem claims she was against federal deficits and debt before she was for it. "At the end of the day" she will push to borrow tens of millions of dollars from China and our grandchildren to bail out uninsured ranchers.

    I think Rep. Noem must be dizzy from all of the spin she puts out. She has every issue surrounded.

  13. caheidelberger Post author | 2013.10.19

    Jerry, don't you commit some sort of deep contradication using the words Palin, school, and thought in the same sentence?

  14. caheidelberger Post author | 2013.10.19

    R., can Noem hang on to the Nelson-Hubbel vote with anything other than sex appeal? Will she get a primary challenger like Rounds and Daugaard have?

  15. jerry 2013.10.19

    CAH, I have had a word with the wordsmith of my brain regarding those poor choices of sentence structure. We are now in the process of eradicating any, and we mean any, references to that again. That part of my brain is now as empty as NOem's is on full channel. I could have blamed that on the dust bunnies there, but then realized that NOem saved me from the dust. By the way, why did the Lien boy get to go to Washington to testify to that dust thing as a farmer? https://madvilletimes.com/2011/10/noem-sprinkles-pixie-dust-lies-about-health-effects-of-rural-dust/ Oh boy, after those brain cells get dusted off, you never know what you will find.

  16. Douglas Wiken 2013.10.19

    "Oxymoron" might be what your are looking for, but it is deep in the dust bunnies of the mind which are slowly unraveling..

  17. jerry 2013.10.19

    Daily Kos has a good read on why NOem, Nelson, The Thune Bird, the Rounds boys, The Bos and the rest are full of beans when it comes to defending their shutdown and support of the coup of our American government. Check it out for yourselves and go through it point by "vital fluid" point. It is quite good and informative: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/10/19/1248888/-Thomas-Sowell-Tries-To-Prove-A-Falsehood-and-does-better-than-I-would-have-expected

    So nice try Model T Party, put put put. NO More NOem

  18. owen reitzel 2013.10.19

    very good link Jerry. Great job!

  19. john tsitrian 2013.10.19

    Jerry, point 6 recalls a line from Lincoln's speech (recently brought to my attention by a good friend) at Cooper Union in 1860: "A highwayman holds a pistol to my ear, and mutters through his teeth, "Stand and deliver, or I shall kill you, and then you will be a murderer!"

  20. jerry 2013.10.19

    john tsitrian, that is very good and as true then as it is now. How is it that the Republican party, a party that prides itself on being able to form legislature that is business friendly, could wind up with such a bunch of absolutely ignorant people with no savvy whatsoever about how business operates? Even small business people, our ranchers for instance, just do not seem to get the importance of a strong government that has regulations as well as protections. How can they not see that rather than smothering their interests, they enhance them in so many ways. Now, we see this same party that I had so much respect for in the past, change into a monster that would eat itself to starve itself to death in the name of what? I wonder what regulations are so stifling that business cannot operate under, are you aware of any? If so, why doesn't NOem bring them to everyone's attention and then a debate on how to either change it or make it better, isn't that NOem's job? NO More NOem

  21. john tsitrian 2013.10.19

    Lots of good questions there, Jerry, more than I can get to here. I'll formulate a response directed at you in my blog in the next couple of days.

  22. caheidelberger Post author | 2013.10.20

    Jerry, I don't read Kos much, but that's a good point-by-point response. And John, your Lincoln quote is sharply relevant. I look forward to your next post, which readers will see in the "SD Mostly Political Mix" RSS feed in the right sidebar!

  23. Kent and Faye Frerichs 2013.10.20

    Kent and Faye Frerichs said:
    South Dakota Magazine (South Dakotan's Will Survive: 10-16-13) also shows how the government shutdown hurt recovery efforts in Western South Dakota. Our thoughts and prayers are with all who have been impacted. The importance of a new farm bill to help deal with these losses becomes even more evident. Immediate action is long overdue. To support the shutdown of our government, especially during this time of catastrophe, is inexcusable and insensitive for the plight of our fellow citizens. Hopefully things will move forward with a positive outcome.

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