The Complete Idiocy of A Government Shutdown

Congress is well and truly broken (news flash, I know). But the idiocy of the probably government shutdown over a budget is a pointless bit of grandstanding that will serve no actual purpose. Both sides deserve a lot of blame -- the Democrats for failing to do what they needed to last fall when they had control of both houses and just getting something sorted out and the Republicans for being grandstanding idiots who are proving that they don't actually know anything about how government budgets work and willing to sacrifice the livelihoods of over a million people so they can say to their equally ignorant voters that "they did something about the deficit".

Reality check number one: The time is past to make any meaningful cuts in FY11. If they want to be having serious discussions about the way forward, they should be putting this energy into next year's FY12 budget. The reality is this. Because of the terms of spending during a Continuing Resolution, most of this year's money is already spent and on things that no one may have wanted to do anyway. Federal programs have been working on getting 1/12 of last year's funding per month to run their programs, but only doing whatever it was they did last year. Even if everyone decides that whatever they were doing last year is useless and doesn't need doing (and here's something else -- many of the people running the programs feel the same way, which is why they submitted a budget proposal for FY11 that reflected the current needs, often at less cost) -- more than half of the the money is gone. It has been spent on the old thing, and will not be refunded. The programs that are set to be enhanced won't get cut in the new budget and will get whatever their entire annual infusion of money was supposed to be anyway, so whatever wonderful "deal" is worked out, it's going to cost the taxpayer more, because we will wind up paying for both budgets.

And to take this out on the backs of the federal workers is insane. Forget the ridiculousness of Congress saying "well, oops, it's in the Constitution that we have to be paid, so sorry", but the people doing the work have been keeping up their end of the bargain. Again, you may think that program x or y is stupid and inflated, but the way to deal with that is to address future budgets so that they get shut down or adjusted in an orderly way. Every program has shutdown costs, and you can't just fire everyone overnight to get rid of a federal program. But the worker bees, who are now pretty much some of the only remnants of a middle class left, either will not get paid for their time away from work (although they'll have to come back to work and do all the work that gets piled up while they're gone) because the grandstanders will still be looking to score points with their idiot constituencies back home, who have fallen prey to getting all the workers to turn on each other rather than address the real issues of incompetent, irresponsible, and irresponsive legislators and a business climate that is not conducive to actually employing people here or paying corporate taxes to the government. Even if they are declared essential, no paycheck will be forthcoming for anyone until this is over, so there's a real risk of people not getting their checks on time. So when May's payments come around, many people will be short. Even government loan programs have said "well, sorry, I don't care if we're not paying you on time this month, you better pay us on time." So people may have to take out loans or eat their tax refunds that they had hoped to put into their savings because the legislators are incompetent. Federal workers also have the hardest time dodging their tax bills, because it gets taken out at the tap. So they're some of the people who are actually paying in to the system.

And for the other idiots who say "all federal workers are bloated, overpaid, do-nothings, and I know because I know someone who knows someone who works for the government and they tell me it's true". I ask you this. If you really think that these jobs are cushy and overpaid, what stopped you from getting on this bandwagon? Government jobs in the US are open to anyone -- you don't have to come from a certain family, only attend a certain school, etc. You were just as free as anyone else to decide that you wanted to position yourself for government work. There are a LOT of different occupations in federal work. You couldn't find one to fit? Did you try? Did you decide that you were going to pass up the easy big paycheck back in the day when they were throwing around money for speculative jobs? Did you decide that making a priority of long term stability was only for losers, or couldn't see the writing on the wall about industries poised on the brink? Did you decide that relocating was something you didn't want to do? Did you think "well, I don't want to go to school any more, so I'm only going to get a basic skillset?" There are a million valid reasons to not have applied for a federal job, but no one stopped you from getting on the alleged gravy train either. Choices.

Government benefits aren't actually that great -- they are what were standard a generation ago. In real terms, the buying power of a government job has gone down -- 30 years ago, a single GS-12 could support a family of four with one income, a decent house in a good neighborhood close to work, a car, and a nice vacation. But now it takes two GS13s or 14s to hope to pull that off. But instead of holding the legislators and businesses accountable for putting in place disincentives to have a balanced employment system, the people who have been screwed over are venting their spleen at the few remaining people who are left being treated fairly. This is how it works when you want to deflect attention from an actual problem -- you pit a group that should be working together against itself so that they don't go after the real problem. We train ourselves to think in soundbites and respond emotionally to issues rather than reason them out. Not all deficits are bad. There are times when they are called for or a better solution than a blind adherence to 'balanced budgets". But it's complex, takes thought and a sophisticated response.

I have seen how Congress works from the inside, and it's ugly. There are no courageous people left who simply call BS on the shenanigans and realize they've got to buckle down and just start making things a little less bad to start and need to actually accomplish something. No one to actually say "okay, we're going to rebalance the cost/benefit effect of government. You want some good services, we can provide them, but we're also going to have to ask you to pay a bit more". While i am peeved at the income redistribution and rotten carrots thrown at the masses to pander to an electorate that mostly doesn't already pay it's fair share of the tax bill (and go look up the stats on what people actually get from government in dollar terms vs. how much they pay in), I will pay more if the services that are actually useful to me stick around. I will pay more to ensure good schools. I will pay to keep the National Poison Control centers open. I will pay to ensure better medical care if someone will go after the stupid insurance racket/structure that exists now.

But I forgot, I'm actually the problem, so not paying me for a while is the solution, even though ultimately I'm going to have to do everything I'm not being paid to do anyway. Whatever.