Some of us "older" folks feel it is a small reward just to get out of bed in the morning. But looking back at the 16 days of a government shut-down, I had the feeling that somehow I was transported, via some time-space continuum, into wah-wah land where other-world creatures had achieved a reverse aging process. A child in this new universe is born with superior intelligence but imprisoned in a small undeveloped body. As this child ages, his body matures but his mind deteriorates resulting in some sort of "man-child" governmental leadership with fully developed bodies and childish ideas as to how the country should be run.
It naturally follows, when gathered together as a legislative body, these man-children attempt to solve national problems with unreasonable pre-conditions, vocal tantrums and finger pointing to blame others for failing to agree with their views. To further torture the national population, a segment of this political leadership has conspired to put in place its demands by actually closing down the national government and sending some 800,000 government employees home without pay.
And it came to pass that
these furloughed employees were outraged at their status of being a helpless
pawn in a juvenile game of chicken; moreover, those responsible (some 535
childish legislators) continued to receive paychecks.
To make this hoax complete,
248 lawmakers (according to an Oct 10, 2013 Washington Post article) declared
they would refuse, donate to a charity, or hold compensation in escrow over the
course of this impasse. This list
includes California Senators
Barbara Boxer and Senator Dianne Feinstein but noticeably absent from
this list is a local Congressman Sam Farr and former house speaker Nancy
Pelosi.
As I grope for some kind of
logic here, I notice wah-wah land gives away $-billions in foreign and military
aid; spends $-trillions on wars it cannot win which has resulted in a $16.7
trillion national debt with a $20 billion monthly interest, but when it comes
to national health care - well, then it is best to shut down the government
rather than work out some sort of compromise.
But, let's look at the bright
side, when the government was shut down, 800,000 federal employees were put
adrift without pay. If we estimate
the average employee earns $20 per hour, then there is a savings of
approximately $16-million per hour or $128-million per day. But, after ten working days, the
savings is only $1.28-billion - clearly not enough to pay for one month's
interest on the national debt.
But wait . . . these man-child
leaders passed legislation which will reimburse all lost wages to furloughed
employees once this fiasco is brought to an end; hence, there is no savings and federal
employees get a prolonged paid vacation for doing nothing.
And it came to pass that the
masses, which may be termed "the voting public," began to complain about the
lack of measurable intelligence involved in this huge shut-down, and surveys
were taken which revealed the vast majority were opposed to the poor
performance of their "man-child" legislators. But, when asked if they might consider voting for a
third-party candidate, most confessed they were a Democrat or a Republican and
felt their vote would be wasted on someone they did not know.
It is a commonly used technique of major political parties to deny smaller third parties any opportunity to participate in debates and otherwise become known to the public at large; hence, even though existing political leaders have suffered a loss of mental acuity, they, never-the-less, have retained a superior instinct to survive thus leaving the public at large little opportunity to regain control of their government.