A few weeks ago, I arrived from Europe at one of the Washington
area's international airports. The wait in the customs line approached
an hour, because there was only one customs agent working as more than
20 of the booths stood empty.
I was told by a Transportation
Security Administration (TSA) agent that this was a result of
sequestration and it was designed to inflict maximum inconvenience on
travelers so they would realize no part of the federal budget can be cut without horrible consequences. In similar fashion, the
current government shutdown over disagreements about Obamacare has
caused many "nonessential" governmental workers to be furloughed.
It
would not be unreasonable to ask this question: In order to cope with a
federal debt close to $17 trillion, why is the government furloughing
TSA and customs agents, preventing children from taking White House tours and generally doing everything it can to inflict pain and discomfort on
the American people when it could have simply trimmed nonessential
personnel and services from the budget with little or no inconvenience?
The latter solution would make much more sense, even if we trimmed
personnel by attrition, which would certainly be my preference. Over the
course of time, it would make a tremendous difference not only for
today, but for our progeny as well.
Those who feel that the
opposition to Obamacare is similar to the kind of disagreements that
have resulted in threats of government shutdown in the past need to
realize that this new governmental initiative affects one-sixth of our
entire economy. It also represents one of the most dramatic alterations
of federal policy impacting all of our lives in history. Those
attempting the well-rehearsed radical tactic of demonizing anyone who
opposes them should instead consider the tried-and-true practice of
civil discussion and compromise; that is, unless they don't think they
are capable of defending their positions in an open and honest
conversation.
(Click link below to read more)
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About Me

- Judy Chaffee
- This site is the inspiration of a former reporter/photographer for one of New England's largest daily newspapers and for various magazines. The intent is to direct readers to interesting political articles, and we urge you to visit the source sites. Any comments may be noted on site or directed to KarisChaf at gmail.
Wednesday, October 9, 2013
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