So, now the big news is that it looks like the government might shut down. Like that’s a bad thing.
All this time, those of us on the right have been complaining about the size of government. Now, it might shut down. And I say “Good!” It could use a good shutting down.
Only, the government really won’t shut down.
“National parks, national forests and the Smithsonian Institution would all be closed. The NIH Clinical Center will not take new patients, and no new clinical trials will start,” he added in a roll call of expected agency closings.
But the air traffic control system would stay up and running, the emergency management agency would still respond to natural disasters and border security would not be affected.
That means that the government will still operate to some degree, but non-essential personnel will be sent home:
…John Gage, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, the largest federal employee union… (said) “Employees are apparently going to be told to report to work Monday (then) they will be released, and those who are nonessential, nonexempt will be released and the other ones will be told to stay.”
What’s all this mean?
It means that those of us on the right were right all along. The government is full of people whose jobs aren’t necessary. And they don’t even know who they are.
There are too many non-essentials when the economy is good and the government isn’t running a deficit. It’s even worse during this Obama economy.
There’s word that some military might not get paid. Which means what? That the Obama administration considers them non-essential? That sounds like a bunch of stupid liberals. Gotta fund those abortion clinics, but not so much the American soldier.
The military is one of the essentials. But there are plenty of non-essentials in the government today.
Now, I don’t think that non-essentials are necessarily a bad thing. I’m sitting at a computer right now. Not the cheapest computer, either. I spent around $3,000 for this MacBook Pro. That’s a lot of money. And, I could have made do with a $400 Dell, I suppose.
And, looking around the room, I see a fish tank. We don’t eat the fish, so it’s non-essential. There are some trinkets on the coffee table and shelves. Some plastic flowers. A Rubik’s Cube (what’s that doing on the coffee table?). Candles. A scratching post for the cat.
Non-essentials.
In tough times, we wouldn’t have all them.
And that’s what the government is full of: non-essentials.
Lots of people who work for the government are trinkets and plastic flowers. Some are smelly candles.
The military is more like the doors, walls, shotguns, and such: they protect us and keep us safe. Not a whole lot of smelly candles and plastic flowers there.
For the U.S. to come out ahead on this, they need to send the non-essentials home. And leave them there. Let the non-essentials get a real job.
Oh, sure, there are lots of people out of work right now. Non-essentials.
I’m not saying they aren’t qualified. I’m saying their job wasn’t needed when they lost it.
I don’t mind so much when business hires non-essentials. They are in the business to make money. And, when they make money, they have more money to spend on the non-essential jobs. Which, after a while of being done exceptionally, gets more focus and becomes essential.
The government, not so much. The business world is hurting because it has to cut non-essentials while the government keeps the plastic flowers and scratching posts on the payroll.
The government should get rid of all those smelly candles and plastic flowers. Then, they wouldn’t spend so much money.
And you could have more smelly candles, plastic flowers, and scratching posts.
Personally, I don’t care about smelly candles, plastic flowers, and scratching posts. Wife likes them, though. And things are better when she’s happy.
I use to work for a large bank. When we were doing our Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Planning, employees were divided as Essential and Non-Essential. I was Essential (naturally, as I told my staff my cube was the nerve center of the whole bank and if something happens to my PC, the whole thing shuts down) but I always wondered how the “non-essential” employees felt. I’d be like “hey, why don’t you take your non-essential and stick it up your ass”! Then I’d go out and find a job that was “essential”…
Personally, I don’t care about smelly candles, plastic flowers, and scratching posts.
Of course not. You have a y-chromosome. Those are things that no man buys (well, he might buy a smelly candle to woo a chick). Men care about and buy
things like torque wrenches (I have three), saws (I don’t know how many I have, but it’s at least six) and the all-important varmit-getter (Google it; I heard
about it Wednesday, and I have to have one). Women care about and buy a pair of shoes for every outfit.
Men are from Mars. Women are from stores that don’t sell torque wrenches.
They ( DEMS ) are not going to pay us ( THE MILITARY ) when a shut down happens, but these people fail to understand 2 things about the military, 1. when you take away our liberty ( TIME OFF ) and our pay, we get mad! and 2. We ( THE MILITARY ) have all of the following guns/bombs/planes/subs/nukes/ships/ and mre’s, so if you take away my ( THE MILITARY ) pay, i will get angry and I might just take my toys and go home and play somewhere else….like the 1600 blk of Pennsylvania Avenue
Real men also depend on a good woman to fix dinner and wash his dirty laundry and clean the house and such. We have manly stuff to think about, even when we are just laying on the couch watching TV! Real men are ideas guys who can’t be bothered with today details, we are already into next year!
Wimmins affections are ‘essential’, that’s why there is a market for all those crappy little things that make them happy. I have more lamps and dishes in my house than some 3rd world nations.
And if you have a 4 yr old daughter you know that it is often essential to have red straws and not just green straws available when she gets thirsty.
Just look at all these stinking departments we have! With 2009 outlays in billions of dollars and employees. Italics indicate departments we’ll keep around.
Social Security Administration (657.3, 62,00) – Cut! Cut! Cut! Destroy! Destroy! Kill it!
State (16.39, 18,900) – Same number of employees, but cut to 8 billion and employ only people who believe in capitalism.
Treasury (19.56, 115,897) – Cut to 6.52 and 28,974. They don’t need so many employees now that the government won’t be using as much money, no?
DefenseWar (19.56, 700,000 civvy employees) – We could cut the budget a little by cutting many unneeded employees. But the biggest trouble with Defense may be the massive amounts of wrongs committed daily in the acquisition of military equipment. This must be fixed.Justice (46.20, 112,557) – Cut to 3 billion and 10,000 employees. These people have been too big for their britches for far too long. They can save money by eating at McDonald’s and wearing t-shirts instead of suits. I don’t give a flying fart what they feel about it. They deserve this.
Interior (90, 71,436) – cut to 30 and 23,812.
Agriculture (134.12, 109,832) – Cut all funding, cut all employees, demolish all buildings with C4, and remind future generations of the horrible waste by salting the earth where they once stood so that no man may grow anything of use there!
Commerce (15.77, 43,880) – Cut funding to a couple grand, cut employees to ten people, and change role to running an online website that issues patents to users.
Labor – AKA That’s a nice house you got there! Be a shame if something happened to it! (137.97, 17,347) – Cut all funding, cut all employees, sell all buildings to real estate developers, and let the states do their jobs.
Health and Human Services (879.20, 67,000) – Cut everything.
Housing and Urban Devevlopment (40.53, 10,600) – I blame LBJ for much, including this idiocy.
Transportation (73.20, 58,622) – Cut it all. The Commerce Clause doesn’t justify this and we had plenty of railroads and airplanes before 1966.
Energy (24.10, 109,094) – Cut cut cut cut.
Education (45.40, 4,487) Sayonara.
Veterans Affairs (97.70, 235,000) – Eliminate all waste, transfer everything else to War.
Homeland SecurityHelping You Protect Your Stuff (40, 208,000) – Thanks a lot, George. Cut FEMA’s funding and personnel (We survived Hurricane Agnes without FEMA’s incompetence), send the Coast Guard back to the Navy.Correction: Defense currently gets 651.16. Which is still less than HHS.
Marko, one of my pet peeves is that welfare is never shown as a total, but as Socail Security, Food Stamps, Housing, Education, and so as independant things. Defence, I mean War spending is always shown as a total, not Marines, Navy, Army, Air Force as seperate entities. It maskes welfsre spending appear less than it really is. Good list Marko.
“Personally, I don’t care about smelly candles, plastic flowers, and scratching posts. Wife likes them, though. And things are better when she’s happy.”
Yes, happy wife = GOOD. Thankfully, my wife doesn’t care for smelly candles, prefers natural to plastic flowers and our cats don’t use scratching posts.
Oh, Basil! Do you realize that your last sentence seems to equate your wife to the Democrat’s love of smelly candles, plastic flowers, and scratching posts?? I cracked up.
Candles will burn down your house.
Cats are really tasty
Plastic flowers use petrochemicals, which of course drive tree hugging sc*m nuts. so I own a bunch that I keep in garage to cover oil spills.
Currently there are more than 600 federal government agencies with over 1000 departments. In a cursory look, the CBO found more than 80 redundant programs. Cut them all and start over with the 18 from the constitution.
So a few hundred thousand useless gubmunt employees are out of work. So what!? Let them better the planet by removing them selves from the carbon generation they currently do.
So the parks will be closed. Why does the federal gubmunt own any land other than what necessary governmental buildings sit on?
the government should at best need 5 agencies and 18 departments, and less than 50,000 employees worldwide. Congress should be allowed two aids per representative and senator and the president should be allowed three. The president’s wife should have to pay rent to occupy the White house with her husband.
It’s not the closing of the federal government that’s the problem, it’s that they’re going to try to find a way to re-open it.
Do you realize that if they close-down the government, the IRS has announced that they’ll only process e-checks and no manual forms. Yay! They won’t be able to cash my manual check!!! Great timing, idiots.
“It’s not the closing of the federal government that’s the problem, it’s that they’re going to try to find a way to re-open it”.
SCORE!!
When I get my tax forms, I’m going to send them back with a note “sorry closed for business”…
Everyone seems to be misunderstanding the term “non-essential.” It doesn’t mean that those jobs don’t have to be done; it just means that an interruption to those jobs won’t be catastrophic. I’m in the Air Force, so let me give you an AF example. Air traffic control has to function 24/7; that’s essential. On the other hand, an acquisitions officer developing a Test Plan for a new software system can miss a day or six without irreparable harm; he’s “non-essential” in this definition
My son reports a 1/2 pay stub today from the US Army in Afghanistan. It’s system wide throughout the military.
If they don’t pay our troupes during a shutdown, I’m withholding my taxes.
It’s that ******* simple.
Since I have blood in this game, I can also report this to my Internet friends here.
He reports that the squadron of pilots he’s in are friggin’ PISSED-OFF.
Not only do they have to scrounge for spare parts, patch choppers together to keep them flying because Congress won’t fund them properly, get shot at frequently, have their birds fail in flight due to mechanical failure (last year my sons main rotor shaft broke and they crashed), and now, NOT get paid. They’ve almost all got wives, about half have kids (food bills), mortgages, car payments, credit card bills to pay, etc., AND NOW, our president threatens to treat them as “non-essential.”
I am friggin’ PISSED-OFF.
You have no idea.
I’m a federal employee. I asked to be made non-exempt (“exempt” is the term for people staying on the job, non-exempt is the rest).
Now I’m crushed I won’t have my extra paid-vacation days. I’m voting ALL the bums out for not shutting the gubmint down. bah.