April 07, 2011 02:18 PM UTC

Shut It Down

• 5 Comments
• by: FrenchFinn

The people we sent to Washington can’t seem to get the job done. It is amazing to me that congress is still arguing about a budget that should have been passed before the fiscal year started back in September 2010. It is increasingly looking as though the government will shut down on Friday. Some on the right are excited about the prospect of a shutdown. I’m starting to think that it might be a good thing if they got what they are clamoring for. Call it tough love. If they shut down the federal government, they might find the consequences are not what they are expecting.

Dianne DeGette’s office has been swamped with calls from people worried about their Social Security and Medicare checks. Paychecks for military personnel will also be delayed. How do the blockheads clamoring for a shutdown think that the families of soldiers are going to continue to live indoors and eat regularly if they don’t get their monthly paycheck? I remember stories about how many military families need food stamps in order to make ends meet. Missing a paycheck, even if it is eventually received, is disastrous for families already on the edge.

Mesa Verde and Rocky Mountain National Park will shutdown at a time when lots of families have Spring Break. So, merchants selling souvenirs, lodging, and meals to visitors to these parks, during a traditionally peak time, are going to see a drop in sales instead of the increases they had planned for. It is a bit ironic that the Representative from Congressional District 3, Scott Tipton, is one of those merchants. His business relies on tourism at Mesa Verde.

If you are one of those merchants, you won’t be able to get any loans to carry you over this unexpected bump in the road, because banks rely on SBA guarantees for a lot of small business loans, and the SBA will be shut down. Don’t expect to get your income tax refund from the federal government, either. The IRS will be shut down.

Tipton agrees with a strategy to shutdown the government. I don’t think he has considered the consequences, unless he planned to be a one term congressman all along. Looking forward to the next budget crisis, a little birdie told me that a call to Tipton’s office yesterday resulted in a Tipton staffer saying that he would not touch Medicare. Minutes later the Democratic Central Committee sent out a fundraising plea, using Tipton’s support of the Paul Ryan plan to destroy Medicare during the 2011/2012 budgeting process as a reason to donate. Tipton is so caught up in “doing what he was elected to do” that he can’t see the freight train coming at him.