So, the majority of the government is still at work, everyone is getting paid, so why exactly can't we come to some sort of agreement on this? Instead, Park Rangers are forced into being stormtroopers for an Administration that seems hell bent on being as assholic as possible about this-- not to mention the fact that monuments remained open during the last government shutdown and if you show a group of World War II veterans some barbed wire, what do you think they're going to do? Nazis with machine guns were probably a hell of a lot scarier than the National Park Service ever could be.
But don't worry- there's plenty of my ire left over for GOPers as well... the pendulum on stories like this seems to swing back and forth a lot but I refer to my point made in part one: if, as many GOPers are convinced, Obamacare is going to be a trainwreck, then why are you standing in its way? Every difficulty or technical glitch makes them look bad not you and the longer this shutdown continues the more likely it is that both sides are going to get the blame. I think it's time to give the people what they supposedly want and just call it a day... I really don't like playing brinksmanship with the nation's debt ceiling so if you could stop that, I'd appreciate it.
Sigh. Which brings us back to Obamacare... do I think it's a bad law? Meh. I'm not crazy about it but I also know that health care costs are sky rocketing and not enough people have access to our health care system. Something had to be done... what makes me queasy is the blatant act of crass political opportunism on the part of the Democratic Party to force the ACA through. I can't say that I really blame the Democrats, per say- after all, they saw an opportunity and they ran with it- and I can't honestly say the GOPers wouldn't or haven't done similar things in the past- but we're talking about an incredibly large, complicated part of the American economic system. To me, that isn't something you rush. But, you know- hindsight is 20/20, c'est la vie and all that. What's done is done. We just have to live with it- I'd prefer it if members of Congress did as well, if for no other reason that if you inconvenience them, then they're more likely to fix it faster but que sera sera, I guess.
If either side is looking to impress me, however, there is a way to do that. Pass the 28th Amendment... which in my head, basically says this:
In the event of a government shutdown, all members of Congress, the President and the Vice-President shall forfeit one year's pay and benefits with no possibility of back pay. And moreover, if a government shutdown lasts longer than two weeks, new elections for both House and Senate will be triggered six weeks from the day the shutdown enters it second week and all parties must field new candidates for every seat.
Government shutdowns represent a failure of the executive and the legislative branches of our government and the way I've been increasingly thinking about this is that if we're going to continue to live in the age of hyper-partisan idiocy that we do (symptomatic of both sides of the aisle, IMHO, even though both leftys and righties reading this will insist that it's the other guys who are the crazy ones, not them) then we need to hit members of Congress and the Executive where it hurts- by taking away their salaries and benefits for a year. If that doesn't provide enough motivation for Congress to actually get a deal done, well then, fire everybody and get a new Congress.
Extreme? Probably. But lately it seems like politicians seem more concerned about keeping their jobs than fixing the country. I can think of no better way to motivate them to get shit done than by dangling their jobs in front of them.
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