The Federal Government—shut it down!

They sent in the clowns.

If they shut down the Federal government it will only give us a look at the future the Tea Party Republicans are forging out for us. Do they realize the streets, post office, parks and libraries depend on Federal funding?

But if the government does shut down, if a budget impasse between the White House and Congress isn't resolved by midnight Friday, will it really matter in the long run?

What they really want to get rid of is all entitlements. Not only welfare but unemployment benefits, which some states, as Missouri, are planning to cut while the jobless rate is still high. We are heading for the days of Herbert Hoover, where people who are out of work will end up homeless, in soup kitchen lines and dying in the streets for lack of health care. This country saw all of that in the 1930s. That is why we have such benefits as unemployment insurance. Before that people built camps with tents, to live in front of government buildings called “Hoovervilles.”

 They also want to privatize Social Security and Medicare. If that works as good as our health care system there won’t be any death panels for our grandmothers. They will just end up dead if they can’t get or afford insurance. Who will want to insure a population of people of whom about half already have expensive pre-conditions. This will mean that those who paid into social security will probably find they have paid for nothing and they will only have retirement if they bought some insurance plan when they were young, in good health and couldn’t imagine they would get old and sick.

Then there is education. This generation is being robbed of an all around education. Arts, drivers ed, and extra-curriculum activities are scheduled to be cut to balance the budget. Supposedly people don’t want to burden the next generation with a huge debt, but with this direction in education, few of our next generation will have the education needed to understand that debt. All they seem to want is enough education to put these young kids in a job so they can function with science, math and some reading and writing skills. The Republicans want our schools to produce Borg like drones. They don’t ever care if they learn any foreign language skills or social studies classes on the world around them.

So forget about delayed tax refunds, the local 18,000 federal employees in Kansas who won’t get paid, and applications for passports. If a letter or package needs to be delivered get in your car and start driving. The small postage stamp won’t get it there.
Remember that this is America’s future right now. Poor people are being thrown to the dogs. We must learn to step over the dead bodies as we all head to work. We must get used to many more smelly pan handlers that at present (and less smelly since poor people can still find shelters to wash up at) we are used to ignoring. The Republicans have sent in the clowns and they don’t think we need a federal government. They don’t think our children need to know how to drive, work together in team sports or know where the wars we fight are located.
So just shut the government down and let the people see what they voted for.
-សតិវ អតុ