Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Same Old, Same Old Shutdown


Last week I spent a decent amount of time at my job preparing for a possible government shutdown to occur this Thursday. My division is statutorily required to be open during regular hours, so we don't get furloughed when the government gets closed. We operate with a skeleton crew and I rotate everyone in and out, but during the 2013 shutdown, we were open a full forty two and a half hours every week. With the current shutdown looming in an attempt to defund healthcare for women, last week I had to use time not to do my regular job, but to prepare for Congressional Republicans not doing their jobs.

Fortunately (?), House Speaker John Boehner's surprise resignation last week has removed the threat of an imminent shutdown (his Speakership was worth about two months of reprieve) but we'll revisit the threat in December, a couple of weeks before Christmas. The Teahadist wing of the party will have even fewer reasons to cooperate with anyone, so a shutdown then is probably more likely.

This is what happens when you elect crazy people to run the government, who don't actually believe in the purpose and value of government.


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