Day 5:  Federal Employees Held Hostage

It’s a big old goofy world.  John Prine

WTF?  So the only thing our legislative branches and the President can agree on is that us furloughed workers deserve to be paid for not working?  How does this make any sense?  Yes, the government has always done this after past shut-downs.  Note, that’s AFTER past shut-downs!  I understood freezing our pay for three years.  I didn’t like it, but I understood that it’s part of trying to get a handle on the deficit (not a significant step, but that’s a different issue).  But this now tells us it’s not about the money at all.  Maybe it’s really about making people hate federal workers more than they already do.  Prohibit us from working (yes, they tell us it’s against the law to work unless we’re declared “essential”) but promise to pay us anyway.  I guess the next rallying cry will be “take back that money you paid civil servants for not working!”  Given that any legislation that reopens the government, if we ever get such a resolution, will probably only be for a matter of weeks, this should make for more great political theater (comedy? farce?) as we approach the Christmas and New Years holidays.

Back Pay courtesy Huffington Post

John Prine's Big Old Goofy World on youtube