Ho-hum, the Government has shutdown again. Except it isn’t. And this just goes to show how bad of a Political (and Media) class we have here in the United States. And that would include both our US Senator Maggie Hassan and the Federal Government’s Ambassador to NH, Jeanne Shaheen (just that title should be screaming “Government Firster” to you). Government Firsters – those people that:
- owe their livelihood to the government – those that work for it AND are part of the Party of Big Government
- owe their livelihood to the government because without it, they’d have nothing to say
- believe that none of the rest of us can survive without their utterly condescending and paternalistic ministrations outlook upon we Deplorables and Irredeemables even as we insist “we just want to be left alone”.
It should be a tremendous realization that the elected Congresscritters can’t do their jobs. They have ONE primary job – which is to DO their job when it comes to making sure the Government is funded. Put aside they take in and spend way too much for a moment – they can’t even spend it right (and then want to legislate how the rest of us are to behave when they can’t even get their acts together??) in “regular order” – crafting, legislating, and then passing the bills that fund the various parts of Government. But remember the absolute who-ha over steroids in baseball that took weeks and weeks of testimony? Yeah – the reason they can’t do their real jobs is because they make up useless and phone other issues just to show the rest of us “hey, we’re on it for YOU!”. Sure thing, pal.
But back to that above list.
They just think we’re having a tantrum when we say that last bit. We say “and that’s how you got the TEA Party and then got Trump”. However, because of that utterly condescending and paternalistic” down their noses” at us, they just nod their Collective heads and go “no, you need us no matter what you tell us” – they just don’t want to listen. But I digress.
I don’t think that any of us should be all that worried – if at all. As I’ve said for years, the Feds do WAY too much anyways and and we don’t need that many people working for us? Why? Second part – we have 50 mostly decent State level governments right behind it (‘cepting, maybe, CA, NY, IL, and CT. Am willing to throw a few others in there as well but you get my drift) that will still be in business and then the good local ones (‘cepting, maybe, San Francisco, NYC, Chicago, Hartford…am willing to throw a few others in there as well but you get my drift). Are they all morons if the Feds are shut down? No, but it should be a perfect example of how bad centralized Power is – and a demonstration of how far afield the Feds have gone in taking away the States’ Powers and overstepped its Constitutional bounds has been. However, Government Firsters (including almost all Democrats, Socialists, Communists, and the clueless – but that’s a very big intersecting Venn diagram, so I repeat myself) are unable to cognitively get their heads around it. Even the simple suggestion to no longer have the Feds doing infrastructure and devolve the responsibility (and the money!) back to the States in which that infrastructure resides brings howls even more maniacal than Golum when it loses its Precioussss Ring.
If something can’t happen because of the Fed being shut down, that is a perfect demonstration that it shouldn’t be doing it in the first place – devolve that Power and action back to the most relevant or affected State. Like the populations of crabs in the Bering Sea – I love watching “Deadliest Catch” – manly men braving the ocean (like my Dad did here off the coast of MA and NH) and all the dangers involved. The whole fleet was moored because of one of the last shutdowns because permits couldn’t be issued – a Federal thing. So, the State of Alaska should be the ones to be monitoring and setting limits – it’s closer to the action and more invested in the outcomes long term than the Feds because it is THEIR people involved in that trade.
There’s a ton of other example just like that.
But I digress, once again. This whole “shutdown” is fake baloney through and through – Congress DID fund 75% of the Feds including the most important part – the military. No, Dept of Homeland Security isn’t but being that they are ESSENTIAL personnel, they’re working. And just like all the other shutdowns, even if it is “officially” unpaid, every time Congress finally gets its act together and does its job, they attach a rider or a separate bill to pay them in arrears (you know, like paying Social Security to those that paid in all those years. Sign up in Sept because you become eligible in Oct and you won’t be paid until November). And depending on the job classification, if the shutdown goes on past a month, they get paid DOUBLE.
Such a deal – never get THAT in the private sector. It’s just wonderful how they spend other peoples’ money, ain’t it?
So 75% of the DISCRETIONARY budget is paid for. The other little secret is that 85% of the $4+ Trillion the Feds spend every year is called “non-discretionary” which should make your eyes burn as much as it does mine. These are all the wealth transfer types of stuff which are on auto-pilot – the Feds spend it (like for SS, SSDI, other welfare programs) pretty much outside anything else going / not-going on in Congress. NONE of that is affected by this rather small shutdown.
But, to circle back, the Government Firsters are all agog that this happened, who made it happen, and are rather upset that many of us don’t care: “Don’t you know we have NO GOVERNMENT, you jerks?!?!?!?!?!?”.
My response is to gaze lovingly on the “Featured Image” at the top of this post and go “if only…..”.
