Posted on 10/02/2025 4:28:57 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
NEW YORK (AP) — Army veteran Samuel Port couldn’t believe what he was reading in his latest weekly newsletter emailed from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
It blamed Senate Democrats for the federal shutdown, saying they were blocking a stopgap bill to fund the government “due to unrelated policy demands.” It then listed various disruptions to veterans’ resources.
In Port’s view, the finger-pointing was inappropriate from a federal agency and lacked the context that Republicans, too, could have taken steps to keep the government funded. He said it wore away any trust he had left in the VA to offer services without a political agenda.
“This blatant propaganda being spat out was astonishing,” said Port, a Virginia-based volunteer for the progressive advocacy organization Common Defense. “Then the astonishment turned into just anger that we’re being politicized like this.”
Port is among a growing number of Americans whose routine interactions with the federal government this week have been met with partisan messaging. As a Senate deadlock keeps the federal government unfunded, with no end in sight, some traditionally apolitical federal agencies are using their official channels to spread a coordinated political message: It’s the Democrats’ fault.
The rhetoric, popping up in bright-red webpage banners, email autoreplies and social media posts, lays blame on the political party that is out of power in Washington when both sides are refusing to accommodate the other.
Democrats, who have minorities in both the U.S. Senate and House, have demanded that a set of expiring health insurance tax credits be extended before they sign on to any deal. Republicans, who need several Democratic votes in the Senate, said those negotiations should wait until after the funding measure passes.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
Because its democrats who will get fired and who will not get grants, it really does not matter who you believe caused the shutdown because its mostly democrats who get hurt. And thats a good thing. The right wing base wants the spending to stop. We don’t want the government to start up until the spending is cut back dramatically.
After years of working with a woke VA, the truth by them is a breath of fresh air.
US Veteran
Funny how you Fed boys are all worried about YOUR salaries. Where were you when liberals and some private sector employers were firing me from the public schools/private sector jobs for conservative commentary? No mercy, no quarter. I am at absolute end point about all of this.
The government receives a huge amount of money each day to fund expenses. Trump should tell the departments to be careful about what they don’t continue funding. The things that nobody misses should come first, but I’ll imagine the bureaucracy will pick those things which damage people the most as Obama did.
After a vote to keep government open, the vote count showed Dems voted no. They closed it. Federal workers get paid tomorrow. Every 2 weeks. The Dems planned to open it before that next payday. If Trump starts eliminating departments and positions, Dems might fold sooner.
Dude I was a Federal employee in 2008 when people were getting crushed during the crash. I never heard a single Federal employee laugh, make fun of or diminish in any way, the suffering their fellow Americans were going through. We were having donation campaigns at work for local and national charitable organizations that were trying to help people at the time. I still fondly remember the Toys for Tots donation boxes in my building lobby that were overflowing with gifts for kids who otherwise might not have had anything at Christmas. What I get sick and tired of is people who concoct some bizarre scenario in their mind and then try to pass it off a truth.
Are there some pompous a$$es in FedGov ? Of course there were but to infer it was a large number or the majority of them is just not true.
“Trump should tell the departments to be careful about what they don’t continue funding.”
Ummm I don’t think you understand how funding works within an agency. If money has been obligated to a certain effort, you can’t just move that money to a totally different effort. That is illegal.
A huge number of the supervisors in the FOUR Federal agencies I worked for were full of themselves and despotic. Don’t preach to me with your lies. I had extensive experience with Federal supervisors AND employees. Don’t open a can of worms when you won’t be able to get them back in there. I am not worthy of your time for dispute, etc., trust me. I am completely hard core now.
I despise to the core ANYONE who calls me a dude. An assistant principal in the public schools kept calling me dude and I confronted him to his face and made him stop. You know nothing about me and “dude” does not come close to representing who I am. You have no idea. New Jersey...figures.
It is not about moving money but about suspending it. Obama shutdown the WW II memorial so that those arriving on honor flights could not visit their memorial. That choice did not have to be made. A few bureaucratic drones could have been laid off instead.
“We were having donation campaigns at work for local and national charitable organizations that were trying to help people at the time.”
HA!
You mean the CFC “campaign”, where most of the charities in the donation book only actually give about 15% of donations in real help, while the “charity” retains 85% for “administrative expenses” (redcross is the WORSE!) Maybe you didn’t look carefully at the print in the cheesy newspaper quality paper book of charities and these percentages?
The same CFC campaign that supervisors strong arm employees into contribution through incessant emails and motivation speeches?
...don’t ask me how I know.
That’s not benevolence.
That not a cheerful giver.
Yeah, somehow I think you are a little less than truthful. I actually did work at two agencies for a period of years in real life and guess what ????? Everyone there were humans !!!! Just like the rest of us. No vampires, no goblins at least none I ever saw. They were happy, they were sad. A few were jerks but most were just normal people who just happened to work for the Federal government. If you supposedly worked at four different agencies during your career, you must have been pretty bad at your job or you would have been successful at the first one and finished your career there.
Actually never was I ever coerced into giving through the CFC. We had local/regional charity drives periodically on post (with approval from command). And Toys for Tots was voluntary too and always loaded with nice toys (at least in my building).
It’s not the GOPee vs. the ‘Rats.
They are both to blame for the Debt and Deficit.
Didn’t Ray Epps loudly proclaim something like:
“Our problem in in there [the Capitol Bldg.]. We have to go in there!....”
If you are explaining in Polotics you are losing.
More AP BS. It’s exhausting
that’s good
I agree with you that the CFC skims too much charity money off the top. One of the companies that administers the program is a for profit entity, that certainly doesn’t help.
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