Reign of Pain - Weekend Edition

As has been widely spread among the conservative press and blogosphere, the Preznit's plan for the the shutdown was revealed when a slightly tipsy power mad senior administration official told the Wall Street Journal:

Said a senior administration official: "We are winning...It doesn't really matter to us" how long the shutdown lasts "because what matters is the end result."

Well, I'm glad that's out in the open.  Now we know what to expect.

So the administration is shopping for horror stories from people affected by the shutdown:

White House asking for sad shutdown stories

“How has the government shutdown affected you?”

That's the question posted Thursday at 7:50 p.m. on the White House blog by Nathaniel Lubin, acting director of digital strategy for the Obama administration...

So, while hundreds of thousands of Americans are furloughed for being “non-essential,” the White House has found asking for their stories to be “essential.”

And from Nick Gillespie at Reason, how much shutdown is really a shut down?

Overall, 80 percent of federal employees will stay on the clock during the shutdown. It turns out that the feds can’t even do shutdowns very efficiently.

So, in fact, the "government shutdown"  hasn't really slowed the government down all that much.  It only made them cut back on services that might seem useful to taxpayers, in hope of coercing them to bring pressure on congressional Republicans.

Perhaps there's an argument to be made that any Federal position deemed unexcepted in the shutdown should be transferred to the private sector, where it's not as difficult to move people in and out of positions as needed.  And then look for another 20%.