How a Government Shutdown Screws Us All
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s hard-right members are itching for a government shutdown if they don’t get their way on across-the-board spending cuts and an impeachment of President Joe Biden, even if there is no evidence to support such a charge. Their pointless antics could cost needless billions for nothing. This is my two-minute tirade. Let’s start the clock!
Our government appears to be headed for a shutdown in a little over a week unless Kevin McCarthy’s House Toddler Caucus, as Susan Glasser calls his MAGA Republicans, agree to negotiate a deal. Glasser laments that, “the rage of the toddlers now threatens to take the entire government down. For what? To prove, once again, that these are not serious people on whom we have bestowed great power?”
Maybe, just maybe, they want to prove to the American electorate that they not capable of governing and should not have been elected to office!
More to the point, a government shutdown inflicts horrible pain on those least deserving of such punishment. It comes down mostly to furloughed federal workers, including our military personnel, who must show up for duty without pay.
And the tragic irony of a shutdown is that people who caused the chaos would continue to collect their paychecks, even while they inflict hardship on hardworking Americans.
And then there are the financial implications of this mess. A government shutdown costs billions — with a “B” — of taxpayer dollars, money that could be better spent on our infrastructure.
Now, let’s talk about global perception. The United States is supposed to be the leading world power. But how can anyone take us seriously when our government can just halt like a crashed computer over maneuvers from a tiny House minority?
Additionally, the MAGA Republicans want to stop funding defense aid to Ukraine. Needless to say, abandonment of global leadership doesn’t end well for the United States’ position on the world stage!
Weirdly, a government shutdown never actually resolves any budget issues. A government shutdown does the opposite of what such grandstanders intend. It merely demonstrates incompetence and ineffectiveness. It’s a self-inflicted wound. It is, to sum up, just an expensive form of political grandstanding, and it needs to be consigned to the history books.
So, what do you think? Agree, disagree? Either way, we can’t deny that this whole shutdown business is a colossal waste and is simply stupid!
Douglas Christian is a multimedia Capitol Hill reporter. He has covered the 2016 Democratic and Republican conventions as a photographer and has produced numerous audio and video reports for Talk Media News. He has written scores of articles and op-ed pieces for the Baltimore Post Examiner, touching on politics to the arts and to hi-tech.
Douglas has worked as a photographer for decades. He has produced a few books on Oriental rugs; one was on Armenian Oriental rugs and the other was published by Rizzoli and co-authored by his uncle entitled, ‘Oriental Rugs of the Silk Route’. Douglas attended the Putney School in Vermont, a tiny progressive school in Vermont, where he became enthralled with photography and rebuilt a 4×5 camera. Later during college, he attended the Ansel Adams Workshop at Yosemite, where he determined to pursue photography. He transferred to the School of the Museum of Fine Arts and received a BFA from Tufts. He has photographed an array of people including politicos such as William F. Buckley, Jr., George McGovern, Edward Teller and Cesar Chavez. His photography URL is www.photographystudio.com. His twitter feed is @xiwix. He currently resides in Washington, D.C.