Or is it? When is a government shutdown not really a shutdown? I would contend that we are looking at more of a mole hill than a mountain since:
#1 85% of all government activities are actually being funded during this “government shutdown”.
#2 Approximately 1,350,000 “essential” federal employees will continue to work during this “government shutdown”.
#3 Overall, 63 percent of the federal workforce will continue to work during this “government shutdown”.
#4 The U.S. Postal Service will continue to deliver our mail.
#5 U.S. military personnel will remain on duty and will continue to get paid.
#6 Social Security recipients will continue to get their benefits.
#7 Medicare recipients will continue to get their benefits.
#8 Medicaid recipients will continue to get their benefits.
#9 Food stamp recipients will continue to get their benefits.
#10 Those on unemployment will continue to get their benefits.
#11 Federal retirees will continue to get their pensions.
#12 The federal school lunch program has enough money to go through at least the end of this month.
#13 Public schools all over the country will continue to stay open.
#14 Almost all federal law enforcement officials will continue working.
#15 The Federal Reserve will remain “completely functional“.
#16 The Supreme Court will continue to operate normally and federal courts have enough money to keep going for at least two weeks.
#17 TSA employees will continue to molest travelers at our airports.
#18 Air traffic controllers will continue to monitor traffic at our airports.
#19 Hopelessly outmanned border patrol agents will continue to try to stem the tide of illegal immigration.
#20 Visas and passports will continue to be issued by the State Department.
#21 The Veterans Administration will continue to offer substandard medical services, and it will be able to continue processing benefit payments at least for now.
#22 The Obama administration apparently has plenty of money to spend on closing open-air memorials that are usually open to the public 24 hours a day.
#23 The Department of Defense announced the awarding of 94 new contracts worth a combined total of more than 5 billion dollars on September 30th – the day right before the “government shutdown”.
#24 The “government shutdown” has not prevented the new two billion dollar NSA spy center from opening up.
#25 Federal prisons will continue to operate normally.
#26 Amtrak trains will continue to run.
#27 The Patent and Trademark Office will be open.
#28 The Consumer Product Safety Commission will continue to issue product recalls if the products “create an immediate threat to the safety of human life“.
#29 The National Weather Service and the National Hurricane Center will continue to track weather patterns.
#30 If the federal government needs to respond to a natural disaster, this “shutdown” will not affect that.
#31 NASA will continue to support the Mars Rover and the two American astronauts up on the International Space Station.
#32 All city employees of the D.C. government have been deemed “essential” and will continue to go to work.
#33 Even though the Obamacare exchanges are not working properly, people will still be able to access them.
#34 The IRS will continue to collect taxes, but it will be suspending punitive audits of conservative organizations.
#35 Barack Obama will continue to get paid for the full duration of this “shutdown”.
#36 The U.S. Congress will continue to get paid for the full duration of this “shutdown”.
#37 And everyone else is on paid leave. They’ll get their back pay when we open back up for business. In fact, according to a Washington Post article from October 6, 2013, the Pentagon has already announced that it would order almost all of its 350,000 furloughed employees due to the “shut down
back to work this week.
Seems like this is much ado about nothing if more than three dozen heavy duty functions of the U.S. government are continuing to operate in a business as usual mode. As always, the perception of reality in Washington is totally different than the perception of reality outside of the Beltway. Very few Americans are being affected by the shut down and could care less. Just about every politician and member of the main stream media is besides themselves with rage about the shut down. Another glaring disconnect.
But there are some other interesting observations and conclusions that can be drawn as a result of this trivial and juvenile political class behavior:
Observation Number 1 - Should all politicians in Washington be arrested for breaking the law?
Consider this interesting and provocative question: if the government is actually functioning without a budget, is the entire Federal government bureaucracy operating in an illegal mode at this point in time? If so, shouldn’t everyone responsible for operating the government, from Barack Obama to the last member of Congress, be put under arrest for breaking the law?
You cannot claim the government has been shut down because, by law, it needs a formal budget to operate when, in fact, government checks are being sent out and cashed, mail is being delivered, weather is being tracked, air travelers are being groped, etc. According to a Forbes analysis that was reported on the Against Crony Capitalism website, only about 13% of the Federal government has been shut down.
So it is not beyond the realm of believability that the political class is acting in a felonious, illegal matter to have so much of the government still functioning without a legally required formal budget. It is also not beyond the realm of believability to say that at least 13% of the Federal budget could be cut without affecting the welfare and lives of the vast majority of Americans.
Observation Number 2 - Is there at least 13% of the Federal government that can be immediately stripped out without any consequences for ordinary Americans?
We are more than a week into this so-called shutdown and virtually no one is missing the 13% of government that is not operating. Doing some rough math on this year’s $3.8 TRILLION budget, we find that trimming 13% out of the budget would reduce Federal government spending by almost half a TRILLION dollars. If these savings were evenly distributed back to every American household, each household in America would be getting about a $4,300 check from the trimmed down Federal government every year.
Think about what a great boost to the economy that would be if every family had an extra $4,300 in their pocket EVERY YEAR. They could vacation more, buy more stuff for their homes, engage in more leisure activities, maybe send their kids to better schools, start their own business, etc. Since most people are not missing the 13% reduction in Federal spending, wouldn’t this be a much better option for the country than spending money that no one misses by the political class and Federal government?
And the financials of the Federal government would be much better off. In this past fiscal year, the Federal government deficit was about $600 billion. This almost $500 billion in annual savings would wipe out more than 80% of last year’s spending deficit, creating a brighter financial future for the Federal government and all Americans from a debt load perspective.
Observation Number 3 - Some small adjustments to this cost savings/spending reduction model would have to be made to fix some of the soulless, selfish actions of the political class.
For instance, in an act of pure childish petulance, the White House tried to bar World War II veterans from visiting their memorial in Washington even though it is an open air memorial that requires no Federal employees to be available to operate the memorial. The White House under Barck Obama also did the same petty shenanigans with the Vietnam War Memorial, forcing veterans to leave before paying their respects to their fallen comrades despite this memorial also being an open air, public display.
These, and many other acts of vindictiveness from this administration, are meant to infict the most harm and inconvenience on ordinary Americans during the shutdown to solely make make political points. But we should expect nothing better from these people.
After the sequester, they did the same thing, closing down White House public tours, cutting aid to Native American schools, furloughing air traffic controllers, etc., all meant to sacrifice Americans' needs for their sick political games.
Thus, we would have to make some slight admjustments, and only slight adjustments, to the 13% cut, maybe settling for only a 12% cut in order to allow veterans to still visit their memorials and fallen comrades, allow national parks to stay open, etc. This would prevent politicians like President Obama from playing his political games while still trimming a hefty, and nonessential, part of the government's spending out of the Federal government.
Yes, this has really not been a shutdown, this was a slight inconvenience, made worse by petty poltiicians. But "petty politicians" is probalby redundant. Today in America it seems like these are the only kind of politicians we have.
To help change that situation, please visit our term limits website at:
www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
Because really, after seeing how these politicians treat our veterans, how much worse could it get if we had a totally different set of politicians in Washington?
Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:
www.loathemygovernment.com
It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.
Please visit the following sites for freedom:
Term Limits Now:http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w
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