STATESIDE STORIES: ‘Hope springs eternal’ out of the muck!

U.S. Postal Service: “Delivering happiness one package at a time”
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I have a soft spot in my heart for Post Office employees whose work is so tedious and so time-sensitive and ultimately so boring and yet dangerous (just think of the pit bull terriers they have to deal with on their mail routes)!

 

by Mary Foran

Watching live TV coverage of the Senate Debate on the U.S.Federal Budget, which failed to pass, meaning that the Government, as we know and love it, had to “furlough” government workers and shut the doors of various governmental agencies, made for nail-biting viewing for those who really care about a working Constitutionally-based Administration.

“Filibustering” is an old art and political tactic that Washington D.C. politicians have long used to tie up the progress of items set to be considered by Congress. Parliamentary procedure can easily be stalled by politically-correct disputes between the Left and the Right, who both blame the other side for the fractured nature of the debates.

Amazingly enough, the shutting-down of the Federal Government due to lack of funding approval by Congress has not happened all that often over the years: it is considered anathema to good governance and thus something of a tactic of last resort.

The Local Paper, which has been maligned by local Radio Hotshots as being somewhat “irrelevant” in the current day and age, had the courtesy to inform readers about the number of times over the years that the Government has screeched to a halt due to Budget Issues! The writer, Lynne Palombo of The Oregonian, dateline Sunday, January 21st, 2018, tallied the shut-down score:

Since the magic year of 1990, the three-day October government shut-down occurred during the Columbus Day weekend, caused by the Presidential veto of President George H.W. Bush who went against a spending measure because it did not come with a plan to reduce the deficit. The House of Representatives tried to override Bush’s veto and failed: National Parks and Museums were thus closed to the public.

In 1995 to 1996, there were two government shutdowns for a total of 26 days, due to a clash between President Bill Clinton and House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Their stand-off cut government services and furloughed government workers, costing the taxpayer more than $1.4 billion dollars.

President Obama signs Affordable Care Act into law, 23 March 2010

In 2013, a shut-down occurred from Oct. 1 through the 16th, due to opposition by House Republicans to the Affordable Care Act signed into law by then-President Barak Obama. The Conservatives sought to defund or delay Obama’s legislation. As a result of the impasse, approximately 800,000 federal employees were furloughed, costing the taxpayer a bundle once again: about $2 billion dollars.

This latest incident of the Budget being too big for the Politicians Britches comes on a day now famously famous for being the first anniversary of President Donald Trump’s inauguration, and a day of rallies around the nation for women’s civil rights, and for the human rights of the children of immigrants, who are threatened with deportation no matter how long they have lived in the shadows of legality in the U.S.A.

Since coming into the Office of the Presidency, and even during his electric campaign, Donald Trump has vowed to “drain the swamp” of political corruption and obstructionism. This current shut-down shows that even as a pen-signing President-of-Action, Trump must find some kind of cooperation with his agenda “across the (political) isle” or nothing he proposes will come to fruition. Tax cuts and Reform, repealing and replacing the Obama version of Health Care in America, jobs, jobs, jobs, and “The Economy, stupid!” and bringing back manufacturing and overseas profits to the U.S.A., all require learning the political shadow-boxing of the Capital City of the country.

If California can rise out of the mudslide muck, and the hurricane-inundated can rebuild and rejuvenate themselves against all odds, then our well-paid Representatives in Congress can figure out a way to make Government pay for itself, without putting the elderly, the ill, the poverty-stricken and our next generation in the lurch.

The president should cut back on midnight pizza deliveries

“Make America Great Again” was and is President Donald Trump’s battle cry; it resonated with the populace and he won a sweeping victory with the nod from the Electoral College, a very American institution which Hillary Clinton must not have counted on to get her agenda through. Then came the backlash: calls for his impeachment, accusations of misconduct with Russians, women and bankruptcies, and the most recent attacks on his mental faculties from those who find him “unfit to be President” and suffering from what they have decided is “dementia”. (His medical check-up found him to be sound of mind and body, although he should cut back on midnight pizza deliveries!)

It’s hard to say if statistics lie or not, since statistics can be so easily manipulated, but apparently women are now more represented in the work force, unemployment is down, The Economy, stupid, is growing stronger and stronger, The Dow-Jones Industrial Average has financial planners singing high notes like nobody’s business, and Apple plans to open another of its campuses on American dust-bowl topsoil, just to prove “it can be done”!

The Wall may just come into being, if only the border patrol agents manage somehow to get their salaries and pensions straightened out, and don’t have to dig the posts themselves!

And you thought that Spain was in for troubled times, didn’t you! Well, governments always underestimate the resiliency of the governed, who know in their hearts that their common sense will pull them through in a pinch! Neighbor helping neighbor, instead of waiting for the government to make up its mind what to do!

All of us tend to “pass the buck” upstairs. Maybe it is about time we took some responsibility for our own “circumstancias”!

“It’s raining again!”

I guess I have a soft spot in my heart for government workers, like those Post Office employees who somehow passed civil service exams without being able to speak English! The work itself is so tedious and so time-sensitive and ultimately so boring and yet dangerous (just think of the pit bull terriers they have to deal with on their mail routes and the completely strange strangers they have to deliver to and process packages for!).

Well…I think Public Employees should take advantage of this most recent furlough, kick up their heels for a change, and enjoy a more relaxed tempo for a few days, so that, when the powers-that-be stop their squabbling, they’ll be a little more refreshed and ready to tackle whatever might come their way!