Let the Federal Government shutdown...
Not only that, let's celebrate it, make it an extra long national holiday, a break from the political and bureaucratic classes who sharpen their wits with deal-making every day. "Oh NO!" you cry! "What about all the people who need their Social Security and Welfare checks?" "What about Medicare and Medicaid?"
Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.
I'm pretty confident that deep in the American soul there's enough people with a heart and ingenuity who will take care of people when they don't get the check. That is those who want help anyway. I'll bet it won't be bleeding heart liberals either but regular working people. The so-called progressives will be busy getting busted up by the people they've been "helping," who are angry the free ride isn't being conveniently direct deposited. There's a pretty good chance there are several million doctors and health providers who would love to be free of all the paperwork and provide health service at reasonable cost.
It's one way to sort out the wheat from the chaff.
Let's not talk about a week or two here but months, maybe even years. It will be a shakedown of what "vital services" really are and what the government should be involved in and facilitate solutions for. We would know after a period of time what institutional services really are important and needed versus those who are getting the gravy money and dispensable. For example the Coast Guard would qualify but I'm willing to bet that some of their agencies and people will be found as not necessary. My money is on that most students can be taught exceptionally well by competent teachers, let out of the corral and freed from administrators and unions, liberated to innovate without all the clutter of interference.
What about all the disruption it would cause?
Think of the disruption that's going to happen if we don't stop feeding the beast. The political class, bureaucrats and non-governmental organizations living off "grants" is trying to pirate away our money for a government that doesn't serve those of us paying for it very well. They're hijacking our government and we're the fools for voting them in. We need to get hold of the remote control again. Just as surely as the tech bubble, housing bubble and the stock bubble burst, so will the Big Government bubble burst. Now that will be real disruption.
The point is not entirely tongue in cheek. I seriously think we need to let the government stop, become immobile, cease and desist. Most of it anyway and I mean seriously paring it down to bare bones, not this phony baloney "shutdown" which is really government workers staying home and getting paid with all those accumulated personal days, vacation days, sick time. No, just S. T. O. P....Skid Tires On Pavement before smashing into the brick wall of no return. If bureaucrats, politicians and their staff don't have big savings accounts with their bloated paychecks, I don't feel sorry for them. They can help out at the food bank and get groceries.
What is really needed will still be carried out while we figure out what we need and can afford.
Truly vital communications, defense, electrical power, infrastructure and markets will still run without all the programs, grants, pencil and people pushers while we figure out what really is necessary that we can afford. We need to seriously look at our options now before it inevitably bursts all over us like an overcooked egg in a microwave.
