Once more, political divisions have caused the U.S. Congress to shut down the government. Sigh…again?! Ever wonder if a long-running TV show will ever have its final season?
I’m not a federal worker, but my current role relies on the U.S. government functioning at full capacity. Or at least at a rational level. Then again, that may be too much to ask in the current environment.
Gosh, I hate to interrupt someone during their nap!
While literally thousands of people across the nation have found themselves on a reluctant furlough, members of Congress, along with the president and vice-president, are still getting paid. Of course, they rarely suffer whenever such indignities befall the average peon. Having lived in a gilded cage most of his life, Donald Trump can’t feel that kind of pain – certainly not with the support of his blind faithful.
The shutdown has entered its first full week, and – as usual – the finger-pointing has been rampant. I’m almost afraid some of those fools will put their hands in traction!
I don’t care if any of them get hurt, though. They’re not worth the trouble. But Congress is as politically divided as the nation. Trump bears a great deal of responsibility for that chaos. He made it cool for some people to be hateful and bigoted. Yes, he’s taking America back – back to a time when only people who looked like him held the bulk of the country’s power and money.
But the nation has been growing divided for decades now. Technically I believe it started with the Watergate fiasco, but worsened the moment Bill Clinton first announced his run for the presidency. It only intensified after the turn of the century.
Thousands of federal workers are now not getting paid. That includes active duty military personnel; even those stationed overseas. But Trump has done the right thing in that case and ordered that they continue getting paid. Air traffic controllers also aren’t getting paid, but are being forced to work, as they are considered essential employees. Many, however, are calling in sick. They learned their lesson more than four decades ago. In 1980 the Air Traffic Controllers Union was the only labor group in the U.S. to support Ronald Reagan’s presidential campaign. The following year they went through on their threats to strike – demanding better pay, updated equipment and more controllers. And then Reagan fired 11,000 of them. Needless to say that was the last time any work union in the U.S. supported a Republican for the presidency.
Even though things look okay for me now, I’m still concerned. The government agency my company contracts with has been the target of many public officials, especially Republicans. Trump, however, has issued another threat. He’s promised to terminate a number of federal associates and says that, when the government reopens, he’ll make sure they don’t get any back pay – which has always happened in the past.
Personally I think it would be great if every essential employee doesn’t show up for their job. I mean EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM! That’s not likely, however, but I’d love to see how these sanctimonious Republicans would respond.
In the meantime, average taxpaying, law-abiding citizen will continue to feel the adverse effects of this morass. It’s a never-ending cycle of incompetence in the highest levels of the political universe.
Image: Gary Larson
Chief Writing Wolf 