As a fractioned minority group of Republicans in Congress holds the nation hostage over ObamaCare, the government furloughed thousands of ‘non-essential’ federal employees. The so called ‘Shutdown’ is an anomaly because about 83 percent of the government is still running including Social Security, Medicare, airport security, the post office and the military.
It appears that the country can do without the remaining 17 percent of federal employees.What does non-essential mean? Supposedly people employed in jobs that are not crucial to our health and safety such as gatekeepers to our national parks and monuments, scientists doing research, maritime workers, census counters and occupations that might not cause life threatening ramifications if not functioning. Deemed essential are trauma surgeons with the Veterans Administration and the Capitol Hill police force.
This non-essential portrayal is complete bunk. When veterans showed up to see a national monument in Washington D.C. the guards opened the memorial. So the leader of the shutdown, Tea Party sweetheart Senator Ted Cruz, is busy now redefining exactly what counts as an essential function of government and wants to reopen the national parks and fund the Department of Veterans Affair. Sending home a portion of federal employees while Congress piecemeals federal functions is not even saving the country money. Those federal employees, now on a temporary vacation, may be short on cash flow by not getting paid right now…but Congress agreed they will eventually be paid….for not working.
Not so with workers at private firms doing business with the federal government.Small businesses across the country are being hurt by this partial shutdown. Businesses that service Crater Lake and other Oregon visitor sites that rely on tourists have had to layoff employees due to closed national parks. Local companies that depend on federal contacts, such as Bend’s n-Link Corp., have had to ask employees to take unpaid or vacation leave. Major sportsmen’s groups across the country are calling on Congress to end the shutdown that has closed hundreds of wildlife refuges, Forest Service and BLM areas including Crook County just at the start of hunting seasons.
The shutdown closed more than 329 federal wildlife refuges for hunting, and more than 271 are shut to fishing, grossly affecting local economies.Under the guise of fighting over the debt limit increase, the House of Representatives decided that what happens to everyday Americans doesn’t matter to them. Many want the Affordable Care Act stopped and they don’t care what happens to anyone else.
Many federal agencies are no longer functioning with all or most of the staff furloughed at the Commission of Fine Arts, Economic Development Administration, Minority Business Development Agency, Interagency Council on Homelessness, Risk Management Agency, Federal Maritime Commission, Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Commerce where 15,641 employees at the Census Bureau were told to stay home.
Are we missing any of these federal services?Clearly some of the shutdown is an eye opener in shrinking government. The Wall Street Journal recently pointed to the Federal Register, which is the record of new government rules that Washington imposes on the country. The number of new rules and regs published before the shutdown has gone from an average of 400 a day to just 12 or less.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the 401 pages on September 30 included such proud bureaucratic work as a proposed Agricultural Marketing Service rule to increase assessment rates for blueberry promotion, a notice from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration about exemptions for commercial vehicle operators with diabetes and a proposal from the Fish and Wildlife Service to provide threatened status for the bird known as the Rufa Red Knot.
Congress has the ability to hold hearings and investigations about where they think waste is, but using a shutdown to do it isn’t the right way to go. It’s a travesty for the county when legislator’s inability to work together hurts small business.
If we’re going to furlough government workers we should start with the elected officials who obviously can’t work together and get anything relevant accomplished. The final definition of non-essential: Congress.
