The Government Budget Debacle

How many people do you know personally who will be hurt if the budget is not passed? FabGrandpa and I will be. For example, we are currently serving as volunteers at a federal campground in Alabama. We have been told that if the budget is not passed, the campground will be closed down and we will have to leave.  While we were planning to leave anyway on Wednesday to head to Arizona to our summer seasonal jobs, those jobs in Arizona are with the National Park Service. So, we’ll be heading 2000 miles to Arizona for a job that may or may not be there when we get there.

My son, Seth, has been in the Air Force for 16 years or so. He is currently stationed at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland.  From what I understand, he will get paid on April 15th, but after that, if the federal budget is not passed by then and the government is not back up and running, he won’t be paid at the end of the month. He has a wife and four children. Although only three of his children live with him, that is still a lot of mouths to feed when you have no money coming in.

And what about all the senior citizens who receive Social Security as their only income. My mother, my father and mother in law, and countless other older people we know who may or may not receive their monthly payments while the government workers are furloughed.

Edited to add: Social Security will not be impacted by a government shutdown. Social Security benefits will still be paid. Sorry, I was  misinformed when I wrote this.

And the biggest thing that irritates me about this whole situation is that the fat cat senators, congressmen, and the president will ALL still get paid if the government shuts down. Knowing that they will still get their pay tells me they have no incentive to make sure they come to a compromise before the country is shut down for lack of funding.  And no, I don’t think we’re broke, I just think that once the yearly budget bill expires, there is no “law” or direction on where the money is to be appropriated, so nothing is spent until the budget is competed. They need to get on with it, and make America work for all of us.

We know lots of people in the same situation–our co-workers at the Grand Canyon, other people who are members of the military, one set of friends who are contractors for the Army Corp of Engineers. It is very scary to think about what will happen if this budget is not passed. We are keeping our fingers crossed.