Closed For Business

Here we are Monday 1/22/2018 and our government is closed for business. It officially closed at 00:01 on Saturday but there was no major effect over the weekend. As the work week starts, it gets real.

This post is not meant to go over or dissect the issues involved that got us to this stalemate. It is to express my complete disgust with ALL our elected officials in Washington. Republicans, Democrats, Independents, House, Senate, White House, Ryan, Pelosi, McConnell, Schumer, and Trump. The whole damn lot of them.

On the Sunday morning political talk shows, every single guest blamed the other side for this mess. Democrats blamed Republicans for the "Trump Shutdown" or "Republican Shutdown". The Republicans said it was the "Democratic Shutdown" or "Schumer Shutdown". There were no ideas about how to compromise and fix the problem, just blame for the other side.

Many of the arguments by both sides were laughable, disingenuous, and outright lies. It was very interesting to see the video clips and quotes from several people in 2013. That was the last time we had a government shutdown. At that time, the sides were reversed. The Republicans, Ted Cruz in particular, were trying to stop Democratic legislation. You can take the quotes from this shutdown compared to the 2013 shutdown. Except for the specific issues on the table, the quotes and arguments are exactly the same. The difference is that the Republican arguments and reasons from 2013 are now the Democratic arguments and reasons of 2018. And vice versa. 

Almost every politician talks out of both sides of their mouth. They are shameless. They also count on the fact that the populace as a whole has a short memory. What is said in 2013 will never be remembered in 2018. If by chance someone does remember the past statements, the politician has a spin as to how these are different times, a different issue. They try to spin that there completely contradictory statements are both right. In fact, they are both probably wrong. 

We now also have the circumstance of "tribal" politics. Whatever my guy says is right, whatever the other guy says is wrong and probably a lie. Whatever I don't agree with is fake news.   

Both sides try to justify their stance. Both sides blame the other. Meanwhile, our government remains closed. Government services go undone. More importantly, many government workers and others go unpaid and/or are furloughed. 

Stop the public statements and arrow slinging. Get behind closed and locked doors. Buy a few hundred pizzas, cases of beer, a case of Diet Coke and get this solve. No one gets out of the room until a deal to re-open the government is reached. 

Act like adults and do the job you were sent to Washington to do now. We should all be mad as hell at our representatives.

wjh