Wikipedia has an entry entitled “Government shutdowns in the United States.” That’s rather telling, isn’t it? There’s a separate entry for the current shutdown that began December 21, 2018. This is the 3rd shutdown in the past year. Let me say this clearly. Federal Employees are weary of being used as pawns in this game. Congress continues to be paid throughout shutdowns. The President continues to be paid. In this particular shutdown, 75% of the government is actually still open, so the majority of federal employees are still being paid (and working, I might add). However, that still leaves hundreds of thousands of federal employees who are either furloughed or working without pay.
Now, I don’t know about you, but my finances don’t allow for working indefinitely without pay. There’s a mortgage or rent, a car payment, car and health insurance, utility bills, medical expenses, groceries. None of which respond well to, “Well, I’m not getting paid this Friday, and I have no idea when I might be paid again.” And yet, Mr. Trump has assured us that federal workers are willing to sacrifice for his beloved wall, and will adjust. If by “adjust,” he means employees will fall behind on their mortgages or risk having their cars repossessed, then yes, I suppose they will adjust.
But they shouldn’t HAVE to adjust. The lives of 800,000 workers (this time, there are more than 2 million federal employees in all) shouldn’t depend on one man’s temper tantrum about a wall that he was willing to let go until FOX News criticized him.
Really, it never should have reached this point at all. Congress should have done its job and passed a FULL budget, not a partial one, or a series of continuing resolutions. Kicking the can down the road is not a solution!
Our National Parks are being trashed by people too lazy to respect the property. Those parks are treasures, and it’s clear that people can’t be trusted to not destroy things or leave trash everywhere, unless they have proper supervision. Is it really so hard to act like a civilized human being? I’m heartened by the stories of people and businesses stepping up to remove trash and clean bathrooms. I just hate that it’s necessary.
And a government shutdown affects far more people than just federal employees. Federal employees, based on past shutdowns, can expect to *eventually get paid for the time they’ve been working without pay or furloughed. The same doesn’t hold true for employees of businesses that rely on those federal employees. Restaurants in areas where government agencies are closed, contractors that carry out government contracts, those people don’t get backpay when the government shuts down. Maybe they can use personal or vacation time to bridge that gap, assuming they have it available. Maybe not.
The longer this drags on, the direr the consequences will be. Next year, 2020, is an election year, both for the president and for many senators and representatives. Remember this. Do not let this and all the other actions by Congress and the President be swept under the rug. Yesterday, Lindsey Graham stated, “I do want to open up the government, but the goal is not to open up the government. The goal is to fix a broken immigration system to bring reality to this table.” Way to continue ignoring your constituents, Lindsey Graham. He’s up for re-election in 2020. I won’t forget this.
