What’s the best way to derail a 26,000+ stock market, record high consumer confidence, and international standing all at once? If you answered, “Shut down the federal government.” Then our dear friend and Snidely Whiplash protégé Chuck Schumer (D. N-Y) might just have a job for you.
After battling late in to the night, the screaming minority may have finally succeeded in taking some of the wind from president Donald Trump’s sails. The federal government has been ground to a halt. Make no mistake that this will gravely hurt the economy, which has been expanding at a record pace after being set free from the big government, anti-business shackles attached by the Obama administration.
Late Friday evening the House-backed bill that would have allowed the government to continue operating in to mid-February was introduced to the Senate with not more than a whimper. Originally, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R. KY) didn’t even want to bring it to a vote (a sign that the Republican party has some fat to trim of it’s own) because the votes weren’t guaranteed and a failure would have been too embarrassing this late in the game.
Desperation eventually set in when the bill was opened to the floor for a procedural vote (read, vote to vote if it’s even worth voting on) and the outcome was to be expected. A united party of Democrats toed their party line and a fractured Republican party couldn’t even agree on something as simple as getting paid. But we must remember, for these democrats and RINOs money is no object. A life time of public “service” has lined their pockets for generations. Let’s take a moment to reflect on some of the other casualties of this “War On Trump”.
Doing More With Less
That’s a catchy phrase, right? I’m sure your bosses or managers have spouted that off during times of fiscal frugality. Well the United States military is no exception. Ideally working under budgets that have been developed well into the next decade, the military has been operating on piece-meal budgets since 2013.
Assuming no budget passes over the weekend a civilian furlough will kick in. Soldiers, sailors, and airmen will go in to work Monday morning without their civilian counterparts. An already shrunken and exhausted force, who in recent years have come to rely even more on rehiring retried personnel into civilian positions, will be further depleted when that crutch is kicked out from under them by a political party that values illegal immigrants and their children over the very ones who swore to protect and defend.
Deployed worldwide, the US military now must confront a new enemy: creditors. Yes. Our men and women in uniform will be handling business as usual while the debate in Washington rages on. If it is not settled in time a crucial window that allows the DoD’s payment arm to start sending out paychecks will close and payments will not be deposited on time.
The very best of us could soon be in the position of having to call landlords and banks and explain that while their contract requires them to work, it doesn’t require compensation, and that they will be paid eventually, maybe something could be done about these late fees?
Science fiction writer J. Michael Straczynski eloquently stated “Faith Manages”. True, but it doesn’t pay the bills. And for the men and women in uniform who’ve placed their faith in the government to take care of them for taking care of us and to use our limited resources responsibly this is just another of a long string of tests to that faith, one that will make Job himself sigh in relief that he isn’t filling their boots.