Flutterby™! : Pause 2013-10-11 16:36:07.743432+00

Pause

2013-10-11 16:36:07.743432+00 by Dan Lyke 5 comments

Pause, for a moment, from the absurdities of the debt limit rhetoric, and realize that these people have been making our laws for years now.

What they should be afraid of is that to MOST of us hard working tax paying people is that we don't notice the government is partially shut down.

And yes, these idiots are about building empires, power and money, not about being socially responsible representatives for the people that voted for them (and the people in their areas that did not vote for them).

#Comment Re: made: 2013-10-11 18:15:08.892903+00 by: ebradway [edit history]

You also don't notice a brain tumor initially. The cost of the shut down is in long-term planning and preparation. Believe it or not, the people who work for the government put a lot of effort in taking long- term views. For instance, the USGS doesn't make flood maps because of the recent floods in Boulder. They make flood maps for the country that, perhaps, take into account what they learned in Boulder and apply it in places that may not see a flood like that in our lifetime (but the risk is non-zero). Another way to look at it, instead of just fixing pot holes, the government is planning roads for growth. During the shutdown, you may notice the pot holes going un-fixed but you won't notice the lack of planning until a crisis hits. You won't notice that your flood maps weren't updated until after the flood.

And most of the "fix the pot holes" type work is done by contractors, not government employees. Bush Jr made sure that very little of the work you or I immediately notice is not done directly by the government.

Eric, if its the long term planning that is only being affected I'll probably never notice what damage this shutdown has done. Unless I'm visiting a National Park the Federal government has little direct impact upon me. That's not to say that it doesn't have a significant indirect impact but how it affects me indirectly will probably go unnoticed when it isn't there.

Of course I guess I'll probably notice the grass being overgrown at government properties after a bit but if that happens I could just mow it myself.

I'm seeing it: A former coworker is starting a brewery in Petaluma. He's just got wort in the fermenters and is waiting on label approval.

But, yeah: Chances are good this'll be done with before I really notice that the little details got pushed off. It's just going to cost extra to sort out things like ongoing maintenance on research and disaster preparedness because of the interruption.

And Charlene and I aren't deep in the volunteering right now, so we're not noticing lower-income impacts just yet, but I'm sure they're creeping up on our community.

I've had some indirect impacts, and heard stories, but nothing directly to me or Nancy in the last two weeks. It has affected some friends who work directly for, or in a business that needs federal government. It'll affect us when we travel.

Weird impact: The one thing that us hard working tax burdened people miss is National Parks. I see the State of Utah is attempting to fund the big tourist attraction parks as fall break approached.