What a Government Shut Down Means For Us

The Looming Budget and Debt-Limit Fight and the Possibility of a Government Shut Down

I always thought we were more of a hot chocolate or apple cider nation.  Perhaps those newly addicted to their earl grey need to remember that honey gets you more than vinegar.  Shutting down our government due to an inability to work together will not serve those looking to reform our government.  I firmly believe that the shut down will be blamed on the Tea Party with some success.  Those on the left in our nation will be able to point to the newest members of Congress and rightly claim that they have neither realistic expectations nor the ability to work with opposing points of view.  Holding entitlement reform over the heads of the older Republicans and all but the blue dog Democrats will accomplish nothing in the long term and will only serve to push the Tea Party further into fringe politics.   Who knows what the older Republicans of the establishment will do?  Will Ron Paul and other like-minded politicians be allowed into the Republican primary debates, or will they be grouped into this fringe movement in order to justify ignoring their message and their supporters?  Will the Republicans be further weakened in our government due to a successful blame game played by the Democrats?  Will the Democrats be able to push a more leftist agenda due to rallying the centrist voters against fringe movements like the Tea Party?  This is a dangerous stand off for both the Tea Party and American politics in general. 

            $30,000,000,000 is what this is all about.  Well, roughly anyway.  With the kind of spending our federal government enjoys, this 30 billion bucks just doesn’t seem like much money anymore.  Can either party, much less our country, afford to shut down our government over such a number?  The Republicans in the House are under pressure to pass a bill removing their ability to collect paychecks during a potential shut down.  The Senate has already done so.  Yes, under current law, they still get paid if they fail to keep the government running.  Although the idealist in me wants nothing more than our “leaders” to go home for a while and quit writing legislation; the practical side of me acknowledges that during a shut down it is the myriad of lower level government employees that actually are hurt.  It is the local sandwich shop or hot dog stand that shuts down.  The local economy will see more pain than the central economy since our illustrious leaders in Washington will simply “print” more money to pay the bills they left unaddressed while shut down.  States will end up either suffering through bridge expenditures they can’t afford or assistance in lieu of pay to those affected within their borders.  Meanwhile we will all be reminded how much we need our federal politicians’ leadership to avoid future shut downs.   Their talents at playing the blame game will be on full display.  Their disgusting campaigns will once again prove we can be herded like the Romans to the Coliseum.  Give me a little right-wing-Christian slander and I’ll trade you some tree-hugger-union libel.  So what, if anything, can we gain from the shut down scenario?

            First of all we can recognize why this is really such a big deal.  Our federal government is just too damn big and has their hands in too many piles.  Our nation must learn that the ring of freedom sounds less loudly when half the population is hanging from the Liberty Bell.  We need to realize that we can not sustain the type of society in which roughly half the citizens rely on taxes for their wages.  Well, that isn’t strictly true.  We can go down the road of government employment if we are willing to be honest with ourselves and admit that liberty is not the goal of our nation anymore.  Government jobs will always reflect government control.  The second lesson we can learn is how to fight for the goals we have.  Going to Washington with a sharpie isn’t going to work when politicians will only address discretionary spending.  We need to look at the system as a whole in order to figure out how to improve our future financial outlook.    We need to figure out how to stop the lie that Social Security has become.  Everyone knows that relying on social security as a retirement isn’t realistic.  I have yet to find a supporter of social security that is willing to rely on it by choice.  So why do we tie up our money in a system that will not provide for us later?  Those who are forced to rely upon S.S. due to their economic status are really the victims here.  The system is built to promote reliance and an ever growing government.  If S.S. isn’t enough they will help with Medicare or Medicaid.  When those fail, they will use them as an excuse to not only spend more money, but also the failure will justify reforming health insurance on your behalf.  Every one of these ideas creates more government jobs.  Every government employee reduces the tax base.  Every mistake made while creating government programs creates the need for a fiat currency.  The cycle of governmental dependency never ends.  If we are to fight for true change in Washington, we need only look to the past for our set of goals for the future.  We need to stop lying to younger citizens about what we can provide for them.  We need to start holding our leaders to their oaths.  How many Presidents have started military actions without congressional approval?  Was Iraq building a Navy to attack us?  Did they have more missiles pointed at us than Russia used to?  Did Libya threaten our nation?  How many miles of American soil exactly were under threat of invasion or ruin by these foreign countries we bomb?  So let’s start with an easy one, no more war.  I support each and every man and woman of our military branches.  However, I believe we can best honor what they are fighting for by actually promoting those principles at home.  I find it interesting that we are being threatened by our politicians (and that is what they are doing) over 30 billion dollars while yet another President is spending money on a new military action without talking about the spending or Congressional approval required under the Constitution.  Last time I checked, no political leader swore an oath to the U.N. of course that could come next I suppose.  I firmly believe we could vastly reduce our presence overseas without weakening our national security here at home.  However, if the Arab League (or Europe or Asia etc..) really wants our military assistance then let them pay us for it.  Let our country be honest, we are in the business of war.  If this is going to continue then let’s be honest about it and sell our product instead of giving it away.  Of course, I hope this suggestion offends most people.  It certainly offends me, yet at least it is an honest portrayal of what we do.  We arbitrarily apply our military might to the causes that suite us at that time.  If the selling of death and regime changes doesn’t sound like a good way to turn a profit, then why are we doing it at our own peril?  If we believe in the claims that we are protectors of democracy then we need to remember that democracy is only the right to vote, it certainly doesn’t promise anything resembling fairness.  We have not brought peace on the back of bombs very well in our history and the belief that we are now is foolish. 

Let’s bring our troops home.  Let’s use them to guard our borders and true national interests.  Let’s start obeying the guidelines we were given in our Constitution.  Let’s demand that our government ONLY does those things that are impossible for us to do for ourselves.  Let’s address the tools, such as the Federal Reserve, that allow our current thieves in Washington to steal money from both us and future generations at the same time.  Let us stop idiotic expenditures such as sugar subsides or oil exploration in Brazil.  Let us decide to hold elections not based on money but merit.  Instead of arguing over a few dollars here and there, let us address the principles we have abandoned and the rest will fall into place.  In a government that spends trillions of dollars with the stroke of a pen, should we really be guided into a circus tent of side-show politics by 30 billion?   Once again we are distracted by the useless hand of government while the productive hand simply continues wasting our resources and liberty.  In the end, our government will probably not shut down.  They may not pass a budget at all like last year and instead pass continuing resolutions to keep things going.  They may act like they are coming together for the best interests of us all and pass a compromise.  I doubt either party is willing to show they can’t even fund our government, especially since they pretty much use Monopoly money as it is.  Regardless of how it turns out, the American population has been distracted with yet another short term problem with long term consequences created by our politicians.   Someday we need to fight against the systemic problems which allow Washington the power to create these issues.  Someday we need to fight about the real issues and not just about how to handle the consequences of past and current abuses of that system.