Even when the government is out of business, it is still messing with our business.
It is interesting to see how the government shutdown impacts folks.
Of course, congressmen and senators are still getting fat paychecks while 800,000 people they put out of work aren't. Some are being politically magnanimous in not accepting paychecks. Wonder if they are paying their expenses? Wonder if the congressional gym and dining rooms are closed?
Noticeable are many of the predicted draconian consequences of the shutdown that have not come to pass. Wall Street advanced when the government shut down. That's very telling. The rest of the country also seems to be functioning relatively well.
I love what the busloads of World War II veterans did when they showed up at their open air World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C. and found it barricaded, keeping out the very people it honored due strictly to political ineptitude that is doing as much damage to this nation as its enemies tried almost 70 years ago.
They stormed the place like they did at Normandy. Some were in wheelchairs, but that did not stop them just like when our enemies tried to destroy this country and those men and women stopped it. I would not want not to mess with a determined WWII vet in a wheelchair. It would be called justifiable hit and run/wheel away.
Like most of you, I am sitting on the sidelines watching this travesty unfold. It is embarrassing, but not surprising. I watch the evening news shaking my head. The president calls the combatants to the White House for a sit down, and everyone walks out into the daylight of a continuing shutdown. Then the president announces it's his way or the highway.
However, it gets personal when they start meddling in the sacred right of fall; football. The University of Texas Longhorns is my team, but I love to watch Army, Navy and Air Force football. Of late, the service academies have not had great teams, but I have a tremendous amount of respect for those young men competing on the gridiron while pursuing a career in the U.S. military. The pageantry of service academy games is a highlight of football season. Army's game with Boston College was one of two games in doubt. That has consequences far beyond the service academies. Bowl games and rankings are on the line for a non-academy school. Fortunately, wiser folks prevailed and the games are back on.
The government has gone from partisan politics palavering to meddling when it threatens football games.
Fortunately, a good contingency plan was developed to minimize the impact of the shutdown. For example, the Bureau of Reclamation has implemented detailed contingency plans in 17 Western states to ensure continued activities related to the management of water and power and the protection of key water and power infrastructures in the West.
Reclamation will continue to deliver water and generate power during the shutdown period and will monitor emergency warning networks for the protection of life and property.
Seems most of the experts are predicting the shutdown will be a short one, so the government that is out of business will be able to mess more in your business soon enough.
