After 16 days of being told that I could not come in to work
I am officially back on the job. It is a good feeling to be doing something
that I love once again, although I am definitely going to need to retrain
myself to get up and go into work every day!
The timing of the shutdown was actually incredibly good for
me. I had just returned from spending
ten days in Georgia for the 150th anniversary of the Battle of
Chickamauga, and was scrambling to play catch up with all the schoolwork I had
not gotten done while I was gone. The shutdown came at the perfect time to allow
me to, not only catch up, but also keep up with all of the additional work,
including writing three papers. I still have two more papers to write in the
next week, but was able to get a lot done in the past two weeks, work that I
don’t know how I possibly could have finished if not for the shutdown. The
timing also perfectly coincided with Alison’s parents coming to visit. They
arrived on October 8 and departed yesterday, which meant that I did not have to
go into work the entire time they were here. Although we could not go to
Shenandoah National Park as we had planned, I was able to do a good deal more
with them while they were here because of not having to go to work. So, from a
personal standpoint, the shutdown came at a rather good time. If only they had
passed a CR that expired December 7 or 8 and then shut down the government
again for a week or so to allow me to get all of my finals done… :p
In all seriousness, despite the benefit of extra time for
school and family, the stress of having to try and figure out how we would pay
bills with me not getting a paycheck and constantly having to reevaluate plans
to make sure I was available to go into work if called back, definitely made the
shutdown a less than enjoyable experience.
Being furloughed during a government shutdown taught me a
lot, and revealed much about the status of our nation. Here are a few of the
things that I observed:
~We have serious problems with the leadership of our
country. There have been fights among political factions since the day the American
republic was founded, but the situation we face now is exceptional in the
intensity of partisanship, and the ineffectiveness of the leaders of our
government to effectively govern.
~You can blame the shutdown on who you want, but no matter
how you look at it, the result is far from optimistic. The great solution to
reopen the government after 16 days of closure was to do almost nothing at all.
The debt ceiling was raised for a few months and the government funded for even
less, with no measure taken to effect any sort of meaningful change. I am glad
to be back at work, but the bill that was signed last night gives me very
little hope for our future.
~The adherence to partisan ideology in this country has
reached a point that should disturb all of us. The way that congressional
districts have been drawn all but guarantees the reelection of many members of
Congress and it is abundantly apparent that few are willing to stand up for the
best interest of the people and really take a stand for something. Most
coverage of the shutdown and nearly all the comments I heard from members of
Congress was focused on vilifying the opposing side with no sense of
responsibility and little or no reference to the large political culture and
issues that have made this situation possible. This is a stupid way to run a
government and the ongoing polarization is making it worse. We would do well as
a nation to call more attention to it.
~On a related note, I was sorely disappointed in the behavior
of our president. I did not vote for Obama. I did not want him to be the
president. However, he was elected by the majority of the American populace and
therefore rightfully occupies the office of the President of the United States.
With that office comes certain responsibilities and expectations. Chief amongst
them are to act like the president. Throughout the shutdown process Obama consistently
set himself up as, not the president, but rather the head of the Democratic Party.
The clear partisanship of his statements and actions is not the model of
presidential authority. As the president, he should be able to set aside his
own political beliefs and step above the partisanship, something he has clearly
and consistently failed to do. In many ways he is just as radical and extreme
as conservative Republicans, he is just radical and extreme in the other
direction. Rather than recognizing this and striving for a moderate middle
ground, he consistently blames conservative Republicans for everything as if he
has no power to do anything about it. This is not presidential. It is petty and
childish. Being the president doesn’t mean you get your way. It means you lead
both parties and the country as a whole.
~The American people, many members of Congress, and
President Obama displayed a significant lack of understanding of basic
divisions of power and responsibility under the Constitution. Whether you agree
with Tea Party Republicans or think they are the antithesis of all that is good
and right in the world, the suggestion that the House of Representatives does
not have the ability to determine what gets funded and what doesn’t (which I
heard repeatedly over the past three weeks from many sources, including the
president) is patently false. This is a power that is explicitly given to that
body of our government by the Constitution.
Congress as a whole has the power to:
“lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay
the Debts and provide for the common
Defense and general Welfare of the United
States.” (Article 1: Section 8)
and
“borrow Money on the credit of the United States.” (Article
1: Section 8)
Two other especially relevant passages are:
Article 1: Section 7:
“All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House
of Representatives.”
and
Article 1: Section 9:
“No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in
Consequence of Appropriations made by Law.”
In other words, the government cannot pay for something
unless a bill for raising revenue or a bill to borrow money on national credit
and then an appropriation are passed. Thus, both the Senate and the House have
to be involved in raising money and funding government programs and if they
choose not to fund something it doesn’t operate. This is the express power of
Congress, not the Executive or Judiciary. It is a fact that seems to have been
widely forgotten by much of the American public.
~On a similar note, it was very surprising to me how many
people, including members of Congress do not seem to understand that when an appropriation
is not passed the government has to close down its operations. While I readily
agree that it is very confusing because so many government functions were not
stopped (I think they should have been, but that is another conversation), the
fact remains that it is a very clear cause and effect scenario. If Congress
does not pass appropriations the federal government has to close down sites
normally available to the public.
~As I noted in my
Last Post, I was very surprised to see how
much both members of Congress and the American public vilified the Park Service
for the closure of parks. I thought that most people, and certainly members of
Congress, understood that failing to pass an appropriation of funds meant that
all 401 National Park units had to close. Not some of them, not the less
popular ones, all of them. One of the things that became all too evident during
the shutdown was that this fact is not understood well at all.
~In the midst of the shutdown a House regulatory commission subpoenaed
the Director of the National Park Service to a hearing on his supposed
intentionally and unnecessarily painful implementation of the shutdown. It was
truly painful to watch this hearing. The sheer lack of understanding and lack
of responsibility was appalling. Among the many things that bothered me about
that hearing (and there are many) was the fact that the shutdown was treated as
a normal and expected function of government. Director Jarvis was lambasted for
not having a plan in place to keep parks open through state funding as if that
was something he obviously should have prepared for since shutdowns are a
routine part of governmental operations. Likewise he was attacked for failing
to reopen subsidiary sites more quickly when he was operating with a miniscule
staff because nearly everyone had been furloughed. It doesn’t even make sense. The
hearing was a powerful example of the failure of our government to understand
that there are consequences for their actions or lack thereof.
So while I am very glad and thankful to be back and work
(and receive a paycheck!), I am concerned for the future of our nation. Change
needs to happen or we will find ourselves in increasingly dire straits in the
months, years, and decades to come.
"This is a white man's nation... This is a white man's republic!... Do you want these northern abolitionists to take away your Constitutional right to your own property?!?"
This program was far from the only thing that was new and unique about spending a week in north Georgia. It was a part of the country I had really only driven through before and a great chance to learn more about a crucial Civil War battle and campaign that I was far too ignorant of.
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