Cream of the Crop 11/Cream of the Crop 11-1.iso/faq/df9601g.zip/1L

Text File | 1996-01-01 | 6KB | 120 lines

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  EDITORIAL
   Stalemate: Everyone Loses
     by Dave Bealer
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    As this is being written the government of the United States is
  "partially" shut down. There are people who consider this a good
  thing, of course. Many of these same people not only worry about
  "black helicopters" watching them all the time, they believe that
  the space program is faked and that professional wrestling is real.

    The reason for the government shutdown is a budget impasse
  between the Republican-controlled congress and the Clinton
  administration. The Republicans want to reduce federal spending,
  which is primarily what they were elected to do. President Clinton,
  on the other hand, is desperately trying to stop the loss of ground
  (and influence) that Democrats have been suffering since November
  1994. Neither side wants to give in, since both sides are fighting
  to make their basic political/economic ideals the policy of the
  United States.

    Caught in the middle of this battle are the employees of the
  Federal government and the citizens of the United States. The
  combatants have promised to continue government payments to most
  recipients, except government employees.

    The first week of January will bring reduced paychecks to all
  Federal employees, even those who are still working through the
  shutdown. After that, employees of unfunded agencies (which include
  agencies whose offices remain open during the shutdown) will receive
  NO paychecks at all until funding is approved. These employees, who
  are regularly maligned by their fellow citizens, continue to show
  up for work each day, despite this latest insult by Congress. It
  would be interesting to see how many of their private sector
  colleagues would continue to show up for work after their paychecks
  had stopped coming regularly (or could even deal gracefully with
  having the clowns in Congress deciding all the particulars of their
  employment and compensation).

    Throughout the budget battle, both sides have attempted to blame
  furloughs and loss of government services on the other side. The
  truth is, of course, that both sides are equally to blame. This
  team is just not getting the job done, so changes need to be made.
  The classic response in sports is to replace the manager rather
  than the team. In this case the manager (Clinton) obviously needed
  replacing long before the budget crisis ever arose.

    In sports the manager of an ineffective team is fired because
  "you can't fire the whole team." While that is not strictly true in
  the case of Congress (or at least the Senate), a few changes
  definitely need to be made. Obviously the liberal Senators who have
  kept the "Contract With America" from being enacted need to be dumped
  as soon as they come up for reelection.

    Oddly enough, I'm also in favor of firing a few Republicans.
  There was absolutely no reason to be this nasty and impatient in
  ramming the budget down Clinton's throat. The man is cornered and
  will obviously lash out with vetoes whenever possible. Gaining
  concessions would have been plenty good enough for this year.
  Clinton will lose a landslide in 1996 and then the gridlock will
  go away.

    Newt Gingrich, along with those freshman House members who
  incited him to prevent a continuing resolution from being passed
  while the budget is negotiated, should not be reelected. That might
  teach the rest of the Republicans to exercise a little patience in
  future, and also warn them against thinking that THEY now have an
  unlimited license to do as they please. Don't worry about losing
  Republican control of the House - enough other Republicans will beat
  Democratic incumbents to maintain the edge.

    One way or another all the gridlock between the executive and
  legislative branches will go away in another year. Meanwhile, I
  would urge anyone adversely effected by the shutdown to take
  economic steps against the government. Few people realize that
  most of the national debt is owed to the American people
  themselves, either directly or indirectly. If those Americans who
  lose paychecks or needed services because of this budget stupidity
  would simply cash in all their U.S. Savings Bonds and other
  government investments, Congress would have to sit up and take
  notice. They would also have to refinance this debt at higher
  rates. (Note that people who are planning to make future use of the
  educational interest tax exclusion on U.S. Savings Bonds should NOT
  cash them in before they are needed.)

    Refusing to make future investments in U.S. securities would
  also raise the cost of financing the government. Above all, make
  sure you tell the President and your members of Congress what you're
  doing and why. Private citizens can have more influence over the
  day-to-day activities of government than they realize. No bombs or
  bullets are needed to exert that influence, simply the knowledge and
  willpower to act in a positive fashion.


  Copyright 1996 Dave Bealer, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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  Dave Bealer is a thirty-something mainframe systems programmer who
  works with CICS, MVS and all manner of nasty acronyms at one of the
  largest heavy metal shops on the East Coast. He shares a waterfront
  townhome in Pasadena, MD. with two cats who annoy him endlessly as
  he writes and publishes electronically. Dave can be reached via
  e-mail at: [e-mail]
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