As we head into the fourth week of the “partial government shutdown” let us take a few moments and look around the Redbank Valley to see how the “shutdown” is affecting us. Maybe if we calm down and think it through, we might be able to put this in perspective.
We went grocery shopping last night. The shelves were full, telling me that the food producing, manufacturing, trucking, and retail businesses are still functioning as normal. We had supper in a restaurant which was full to capacity. Obviously, the restaurant had electricity and gas to run its stoves and ovens and had been able to get supplies. The roads between here and there were no worse than usual. There were no mobs ranging the countryside committing horrific acts of violence and mayhem against the peace-loving people of the Redbank Valley. Lights were on in all of the houses – including a few still fully lit with Christmas displays.
Maybe there are advantages to living in “flyover country”, the backwoods, the hinterland. There are not that many “non-essential” Federal employees in our area. Our local economy is not being impacted by the loss of their income. That could be a very selfish way of looking at it, but during the 10 years of the Great Recession, government employees – federal, state, and local – got their pay raises and perks while the “great unwashed” struggled to exist in the third world economy that the Obama Democrats were trying to create in America. Having watched the private sector suffer for so long because of government meddling, it is a little hard for me to overly sympathetic with the current condition.
That is not to say that I am not sensitive to the people who are suffering from the shutdown. I have been broke. There have been months in my life when I ran out of money before the month ran out of days and there have been times in my life when there have been more days than dinners. Most of the time, in my life, these rough patches were self-inflicted – or to quote Jimmy Buffett “ 'twas my own damn fault.” It isn't the federal workers' fault that they are not getting paid. The situation is out of their control and I feel bad for them for that. I could almost get angry at the politicians who have crafted this misery, but anger just doesn't suit me anymore.
Not to minimize any of the individual hardships that some federal employees and their families are suffering, how many workers are actually being affected? There are about 800,000 Federal workers who are not getting paid. They are considered “non-essential” workers. Why in the world are there 800,000 non-essential workers? That is a question that should be answered. There isn't any concrete solid number of actual Federal employees on the payroll. I have seen figures ranging from 7 – 9 MILLION Federal employees. That's a mess of folks. If we take a middle figure of 8,000,000 and figure that 800,000 are “non-essential” and not being paid during this shutdown, we see that about 10% of the Federal workforce is considered “non-essential”. This is a lot of people being affected – but I have to wonder why they are on the government dole in the first place?
Taking a larger view. There are about 206 MILLION working-age Americans. The 800,000 unpaid “non-essential” Federal workers represent less than ½ of a percent of working age Americans. This is not a particularly huge number of workers when viewed as a portion of the entire working - age population in the US. The “shutdown” is a bitch-kitty for those workers who are not getting paid, but life seems to be going on for the rest of us. As much as the Ruling Class wants to make us believe that we are, we are not as dependent on the Government as they want us to be.
The thing that irritates me the most, is the incredible hypocrisy that so many of our so-called “leaders” are exhibiting. Every single one of the self-righteous hacks that are condemning a border wall has all voted repeatedly for building a wall in the recent past. Every two-bit, sleazy politico who castigates Trump for wanting a wall has been in favor of walls. And, every single one of the no-account buggers lives behind walls to protect them from the rest of us “deplorables”. If walls don't work, why do they live behind walls? If walls don't work, why are their walls around prisons? If walls don't work, why did the Soviet Union and its puppet states build miles and miles of walls to keep their slaves from escaping? Walls work, and a sovereign nation needs to be able to control who comes into the country. It's a very simple thing.
There is absolutely no sound, intelligent, logical argument against building a border wall along our Mexican border. None.
And their hypocrisy extends in total unreality when they start caterwauling about the “cost” of building a wall. President Trump was asking for $5.7 Billion next fiscal year. The Federal government will likely spend between $5 and $7 TRILLION dollars in the next year. $5.7 Billion is a mere 1/10 of 1% of expected Federal spending. 1/10 of a percent. That would be like your checkbook being 2 cents out at the end of the year. A tenth of a percent is a rounding error. Our Government throws away more than that every day.
The hypocrisy about spending should be clear if you stop and think that many of these same Congresspersons and Senators approved $900,000,000,000 in the great pork barrel of the “Stimulus Package” of 2009. They threw away almost a TRILLION dollars on a stimulus that did nothing to end the Great Recession. This is the same Congress that has authorized $20 TRILLION more in spending than the government could steal from the economy in fees, taxes, and fines, leaving us, the taxpayers to pay off with interest at some point in the future.
The whole government shut down is a cynical, political game that is being played at the expense of the government workers. Securing the border was the lynchpin of President Trump's presidential campaign. He promised to build the wall and the Democrats and establishment Republicans are willing to do anything to prevent Mr. Trump from achieving this goal. It's not a question of morality, it's not a question of cost, it's not a question of effectiveness; it is simply to defeat Trump at any cost.
Our country cannot absorb the tens of millions of migrants who want to come into our nation. Our society and our culture cannot withstand the tsunami of drugs and crime that is waiting to sweep across the border. The American people understand that border security and the wall are essential. It is time for the members of Congress to quit playing games and do their duty to the American people and build the wall and secure the border.
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