Tired and Drawn

It is winter. January. Cold. Bitterly cold. Dark early and drab much of the rest of the day. Pitch black nights, brightened only by the moon through its phases. Dark, cold, drab, dreary. The blah of winter sets in. the Holidays are over. Valentine’s Day beckons. Then thoughts of spring edge into our thoughts. Anything to brighten the drab of winter.

Like the government shutdown, it is all so drab. Tawdry. Beneficiaries of government programs – those who need help and supposed to get it because there are no other sources of such aid – go without. Workers who produce the benefits go without paychecks if they have office hours at all. If the office is closed, they have neither work nor paycheck. They become the people who need help. The servers and the served become one. Yes, the shutdown has ended, but the pain of it remains, and its effects, too.

Those of us on Social Security get our checks on time because computers are programmed to do so. The electronic debits and credits whiz over electronic networks and the banks and credit unions receive funds for the account holder. Life goes on for them. But if you are attempting to enroll in Social Security, get in line. The office is closed; no processing is available. When the office reopens, the backlog of casework will delay benefits for thousands of people in a long, impatient line.

If you are a new business or nonprofit, your application goes well at your state level, but when the IRS is involved to assign EIN numbers, or process tax exempt status, you are stuck in neutral. Nothing will be done until the backlog is processed. Plain and simple.

Countless other examples exist of inaction caused by government shutdown. Each person affected is its own case of inconvenience and hurt. Staff who are out of work have their own story of travail. Credit unions and banks will likely help them over the toughest of times. But the cost will be on them. Eviction from apartments with unpaid rent is not an immediate effect. That takes time, like several months. Same for mortgage foreclosure. In time this all gets sorted out but living through it is stressful and unsettling.

If this sort of thing happens again, the government will find it difficult to staff its operation. Lest people think that such operations could be privatized and skip the shutdown drama, think again. Shutdowns affect payments to contractors. Just ask today’s contractors. Their staff are not only out of work, but unpaid with no backpay options available. The flow of funds to the contractors stops immediately. That’s it. Important or not the functions cease and so do the incomes the workers rely on.

No, the shutdown is a display of ideology – right versus left. Big government or small government. Or no government.

Don’t believe me? Ask around among your friends, those who are solidly encamped in one ideology or the other. They will tell you what they feel is certain – government must exist in all of its forms, or it is unnecessary.

In between is the middle road position. It borrows from other ideologies and makes a workable compromise. That demilitarized zone is becoming narrower and narrower. The two big ideologies are grinding their way toward no compromise. And then we will have none.

And no government.

Is that what the American People want?  I don’t think so.

In a nutshell, that’s where we are today. Pretty sad. I don’t know about you, but I’m tired and drawn. And getting older by the moment.

It is time for change.

January 28, 2019