Government Shut Down Economics

First an apology, my computer has been acting up, so it has been a while since I blogged.  But let's get on with it!  Earlier this week, the Federal Government had a partial shut down.  And it is partial, only select employees were furloughed, the military is still there as are the policing agencies.  As I watched all this unfold, I had some flashbacks...

The first time I saw a vindictive government agency was way back in the 1980s.  At the time, my sister was a relatively new teacher in a suburban north school district.  They had a bond issue on the ballot that would require a property tax increase to fund.  Of course, they had put their argument before the voters, and assumed that they would get it through, after all it was for the children.  The voters rejected their argument and the issue was defeated at the polls.  I believe that most government is bloated and has no concept of doing without.  I compared this issue to a vibrant private school system in our town.  The private schools of the time had a principal, maybe a couple vice principals in their schools, perhaps a couple of secretaries but that was pretty much it.  The public schools had all that and more.  They had administrators, who were the most expensive employees in the school, there to take care of "business".  Administrators make lots of salary, and besides sending reports to the Federal Government, I'm not sure what else they do.  To me this is a huge waste of money.  The average administrator earns over $100,000, and schools are only open 9 months every year.

But I digress, that school district needed to cut expenses because of the issue loss.  Now to me it is a no brainer, at least one administrator in every school needed to go.  Not one lost their job, but it was blood shed in the teaching ranks.  I was young at the time, and really didn't understand it.  As I aged, I spotted a trend.   When voters go against government wishes one of two things happen:  They find a way to sneak it through anyway, or they punish those voters.  Laying off teachers punished the voters.  I've seen other districts close sports, bands, and choirs to punish voters.  It is almost vindictive.

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Back to 2013.  We suffered the Sequester, perhaps the most infamous result was the closing of the White House tours.  Most people I have heard, say those tours did not cost very much, and didn't save much by stopping them.  Most of the Sequester featured items that would most affect the people of this country, but government rolled on.  Now we have the shut Down, and they barricaded outdoor monuments, that never had a lot of employee presence, and generally were open 24 hours.  You could go to the Lincoln Memorial at 2 AM just to meditate.

However, I heard two stories that bear repeating.  The first is the World War II memorial, like the Lincoln Memorial, it is open air, and normally could be visited 24/7 with minimal employee support.  So because of the Shut Down, the President (who is the boss of the park service) ordered the WWII memorial closed, and staff erected barricades.  Those WWII vets took back Europe and the Pacific, a few barricades would not stop them.  And the people reopened the memorial.  Now I saw a picture to where the Park Service, again by orders of higher ups, wired the barricades in place.  Wonder why?  Because it inconveniences the most people, not because it saves money.  To save money, post a sign saying that this area is in Shut Down, and there should be no expectation of support.

The second was on a national parkway, and frankly I don't remember which one, controlled by the Federal Government.  Along this parkway is a hotel, owned via concession by a private citizen.  There is no Federal funds supporting this for profit venture, in fact, it is a money maker through rents and fees paid by this company.  The parkway was considered important, so it was not shut down, traffic flowed pretty normally.  This owner received a letter from Washington that said he must close because of the Shut Down. Why?  No public funds were involved, and the road is open?  Do you think it might be to put an inconvenience on the traveling public?  Punishment?  The best, or worse, part of this is the company stayed open.  Not to be deterred, The vindictive higher ups, whose boss is the President, posted Federal cars with staff to block the entrance.  Costing the Government money.

Now let's go to the future.  With ACA Health Care Law, Obamacare, now a reality, assume there is a future shut down.  How inconvenient would it be to shut down a hospital?  Or a clinic?  Or just certain, noncritical surgeries?  This is how our government now wields its power, and the Democrats will blame the Republicans, who in turn will blame the Democrats.  Where are the Statesmen?

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