Cream of the Crop 11/Cream of the Crop 11-1.iso/faq/df9601r.zip/DRA

Text File | 1996-01-01 | 6KB | 111 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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