Paying for Non-Essential Government Vacations
On
Friday your House of Representatives took itself off the front burner by passing
a law to guarantee back-pay checks to the non-essential workers sitting idle at
home. With this assurance, now workers can sit idle for a last minute bonus
vacation without any urge to call their congressmen to force any
compromise.
With
stalemate paying out like that, why force a compromise?
Not
that either side wants a compromise anyway; one cannot negotiate without being
willing to give up something of value.
Ironically, political donations to both Democrats and
Republicans have been spiking as well during this pitiful Fall of
intransigence...so put your transmission into neutral, take your hands off the
wheel, and be prepared to sit in dead stopped traffic ‘til at least the
17th.
Our
economic debacle is demonstrating epic strangeness overall, and I fully expect
Rod Serling to step in from one side of the screen with a soliloquy to explain
the madness…
“Your
leaders have once again run out of other people’s money to waste. The
debilitating fight is over whether we will again pay off the Visa Card balance
with the MasterCard. As per political leadership, never wastes an opportunity to
fight, contentious Obamacare becomes the battleground.”
President Barack Obama asks: Why are we fighting over
ACA (the affordable Care Act), as we’ve already passed it, and it’s the law of
the land? Hmmmm…
Well,
Mr. President, we were not pleased with Women’s Suffrage and Slavery, so we
fought ‘til we got those right…
The
people will never forget how constituencies were bribed and threatened and
lied-to to pass Obamacare. It was forced-in against the will of the people,
under severe duress. The current implementation fiascos (pick one) make the
wound that much more painful, with timing of the ACA kickoff and CR (Continuing
Resolution) synchronized.
Yes,
the infirm among us flocked to library computers en masse last week to sign up
for Obamacare. [Man, I thought it was free?] Well-off healthy middle class
yuppies and DINKS stayed away in droves. Extreme wealth redistribution will
prevail for years, as the penalty for lack of enrollment is so
meager…
All the
while, UPS and Walgreens drop company health coverages and/or reduce hours to
employees as unaffordable, and other politically connected businesses seek out
loopholes and exceptions to the Obamacare provisions as
waivers.
What,
me worry? Just because “full time 40-hour work” is fast becoming a relic of the
ages, as part-timers don’t qualify for Obamacare coverage penalties. What 31
hour per week worker that you know of raises a family of four?
The
above simply insures more entitlement voters, exaggerated disability claims,
food stamp rolls enlargement, and that your old girlfriend cleans houses for
cash under the table.
Additionally, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) now
estimates that after full ACA implementation, we will still have missed 30
million citizens (and others) who will not be in the insurance pool, or will
fall through the cracks...and that the net pickup in the health-insured will be
only 7 million over current rolls.
With
numbers like that, why didn’t they simply increase Medicaid coverage, at
immensely greater efficiency and lower burden? Because ACA is a political tool,
that’s why...Social engineering, as they say.
So, why
bring back 800,000 “non-essential” federal government employees at all? [Well,
despite the fact that they also interact with and directly impact another two
million related contractor and support jobs and service sector jobs?] A recent
poll – by me – confirms that life has gone on as per the new normal of
non-recovery. As we say: business sucks.
But
even in shutdown-mode, people still walk the dog and fetch the mail daily (its
bills). Cops still patrol the beat looking for evil cell phones, and they
haven't closed up the oceans to swimmers with yellow “DO NOT CROSS” tape.
Yet.
So, if
they were non-essential government workers, why are we paying them at all?? My
taxes are already way too high; I’m taxed enough already. Make-work government
must be reined-in, and this shutdown is a classic demonstration of the
why.
My
solution to this mess is to begin to prorate my federal Income taxes for 2013.
I’m going to call my HR department today and reduce my withholdings effective
last week to not pay for government work that was never performed for me. I will
not pay one-365th of my taxes for every day of the self-imposed government
shutdown.
Consider a similar plan for yourself if you are as
ticked-off as I am. If not, then hustle on down and get some Boardwalk Fries to
celebrate your fortunate bonus vacation.
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