I’ve sitting at my desk today trying to determine if its
worst to be furloughed because the government shut down or to work for two
weeks and find out you can’t get paid because someone involved in the process
has been furloughed. I guess it doesn’t matter since everyone ends up
struggling. I already have a few friends sitting at home today. I’m hoping I
don’t soon have to join them until this shutdown is over. There are so many public
and private sector jobs and programs that help people tied into the government
that it’s amazing that a shutdown would even be an option. Maybe it’s one of those things I don’t have
time to read up on and understand properly. It seems to me like the potential
for the country to go into a tailspin is so high that no one would even think
about doing it. We had two wars at the same time and almost went broke trying
to pay for them. I never heard of any opponent of war talk about shutting down
the government. Now it’s been done behind health insurance.
The confusing part is that most of the new healthcare law
appears to be a windfall for insurance companies. Sure they have to work with
customers they used to deny coverage for but those people also are going to be
paying them and if they don’t make enough to pay the government is going to
make up the rest. I can’t imagine they
would have enough of an issue with the law to send their lobbyist to Washington
D.C and force anyone to shut down the government for their benefit. It seems to me that there has already been
compromise in passing the law.
What happened in Congress is the same thing that happens in
the streets. When you make bold claims about what you are going to do to get
recognition you have to follow through on some of it or you risk looking fake
and losing respect. Some of those representatives have been telling their constituents
they were going to Washington to shut down Obamacare by any means necessary.
They kept saying it even after the Supreme Court upheld the law and the
president was reelected. They had to
take it to the extreme and legitimize their position. They couldn’t go back
home with the program being rolled out quietly then turn around and ask for
campaign funding without taking the most extreme action because districts have
been so gerrymandered that there’s someone even crazier than they are willing
to do or say anything to go to D.C.
