<p>We began a cross country trip the day before the shutdown, centered on visits to national parks and monuments. Altered the plans on the fly. Went to state parks (Kartchner Caverns, Big Bend Ranch State Park, City of Rocks), several rodeos (one college and the incredible Angola State Penetentiary rodeo) and dug sharks teeth in Aurora, NC. Also visited the Tuskeegee national historic site - the gates weren’t locked!</p>
<p>We’ll hit the national parks and monuments in the future.</p>
<p>MiamiDap:
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<p>As usual, reality is the opposite. I only respond to this because I hear it all the time on TV. The spenditures are down 17%, not the workforce. When certain people say the gov’t is still spending 83%, they totally misunderstand what they’re talking about. That continuing 83% includes automatic payments (e.g., social security) and programs that were prefunded such as Obamacare. In no way does it mean that 83% of government is still open. </p>
<p>And as Quotiia points out, blaming federal workers for this is just the definition of ridiculous.</p>
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As so often happens with what you write, Miami, I simply cannot understand what you mean. In what way did this 17% decide to take a paid vacation?</p>
<p>My husband’s workplace was shutdown for a week. Now they’re being asked to work without pay. He also gets disability payments and we won’t be getting his salary or disability this month. He was furloughed for 11 days this summer, so we have already taken a financial hit in AUgust and September salaries.<br>
Could not come at a worse time – We’re trying to come up with payments for college applications, etc. and had not planned to be doing so in a position of little to no income.
It doesn’t FEEL as though we’re “getting over” and having a paid vacation. We’re also paying more for groceries because the commisary is closed – and two weeks ago I switched the kids from the pediatrician to our family medicine practice because they are teens. Unfortunately, the paperwork didn’t get processed because of the shutdown so this week I had to take my child to urgent care for strep throat. It cost 235 dollars which we MAY get back at some future date, but it’s an additional expense that we are now fronting while also not getting paid. We still have a mortgage and other expenses. </p>
<p>It feels as though my family has done MORE than our share in this particular crisis. It’s unbelievable to hear people say that my disabled husband who has fought in three wars for our country (Iraq 91, Bosnia, most recent one) is somehow or other milking the system. ANd yet I see people with multiple illegitimate kids using food stamps to buy junk food at the 7/11 and this is considered a more worthy use of our tax dollars than paying our veterans. Unbelievable!</p>
<p>I am sorry for your troubles, Momzie. I certainly want my tax dollars to pay our veterans all they deserve for their service. I do want children from poor families to be fed, as well. And I’m asking respectfully how you know these are “illegitimate” kids? I presume that your objection is to parents buying junk food, not to the fact that they feed their children via food stamps, whatever the parent’s marital status.</p>
<p>We’ve all been screwed here. I’d hoped it might unite us more (which shouldn’t be difficult, considering how fragmented we are).</p>
<p>In my wife’s office, there were 90 employees, and all but 5 were furloughed. Now one of the 5 has also been furloughed. This is part of NIH, and only people with patient care responsibilities, or responsibility to deal with serious adverse events from ongoing studies, are still working. Morale among both those working and those not working is at a nadir.</p>
<p>Hunt - is all the non-patient care research shut down at NIH?</p>
<p>I don’t know about all of it–in my wife’s division, the studies are mostly being done at other institutions under NIH grants. They can continue with the patients they have now, but they can’t accrue any new patients. And of course, no new studies will get started until the shutdown is over. I would assume that basic science research is shut down, but I don’t know for sure.</p>
<p>For the life of me, I can’t believe in the year 2013, when more than half of kids are born out of wedlock (even with high rates among the highly educated) partially due to very high rates of cohabitation, that people still use terms like illegitimate to refer to a human being.</p>
<p>"And as Quotiia points out, blaming federal workers for this is just the definition of ridiculous. "
-I agree, we are at fault for having that many of them. So, it is fair to get checks for not going to work. But wait, should not we tell the same to the people in the unemployment lines? Why they are not getting any checks for NOT working? It was not their fault for being let go. I know I am ridiculous again. But when the business gets bloated, then people are let go and they are not getting paid a wage/salary. Government is a business. We have hired them to do the job. However, they decided not to do 17% of it but still gettin paid for it and not be in unemployment lines. I am ridiculous, but my common sense just cannot accept this fact, no matter what it will not get into my head, no way.</p>
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To quote Daffy Duck, I think you are having a bit of pronoun trouble here. Who do you mean by “they?” I can tell you that my wife’s co-workers didn’t decide not to do their work, and they want to go back to work as soon as “they” let them.</p>
<p>There was sewer work being done on our street. Every day for a week the contractors were here at 8 AM. Now the work seems to have halted completely for days. The cones and mess remain. I would have thought that a project like this was a municipal expense paid for out of the township’s budget from local taxes, but could this be related to the shut-down?</p>
<p>In addition to patients not getting care, closed NIH labs could mean <em>lots</em> of ruined experiments, especially anything that required cell cultures… And now it looks like the organization where I work on a project will get hit by this mess, because the much needed instrument, funded by a grant, is not going to arrive any time soon.</p>
<p>GFG, are you in Washington DC?</p>
<p>"Who do you mean by “they?”
-“They” are the superior beings that work for government vs. the rest of us the inferior nobodies who get laid off when business decided it is time to downsize or go to bankrupcy because their expenses got too high and they have to cut or actually shut down. O bow to “them”, I have been unemployed, my employers got too big or they bancrupted. Sometime I was called back. I was not paid my salary while I was at home. It must be because I am very lazy and undeserving and it was entirely my fault that my employer had to cut me off to save some money, sometime temporarily.</p>
<p>Buying into the market at the low point yesterday looks pretty good if it resolves today-tomorrow.</p>
<p>Attempting to stay apolitical…</p>
<p>There seems to be a big misconception about the definition of “non-essential” employee to those who don’t work in/with the federal government.</p>
<p>I am a non-essential contract employee. I’ve known that since almost the day I was hired. It’s not at all offensive because non-essential does not equal not necessary or unneeded. It seems that many believe that since the government is just furloughing non-essential employees that the government can do without that there is no need for them anyway. That’s a huge misunderstanding of what it means to be a non-essential employee.</p>
<p>Essential employees are those who are immeditely needed to protect life and safety. At my location that includes functions such as security, fire fighters, medical staff. Essential employees are generally the ones who work (or are at least on call) 24X7, including holidays. These are the positions that are not exempt from any closed days. </p>
<p>Non-essential employees include MANY employees that are necessary to the function of the business when it is in full operation. For example almost all functions such as HR are furloughed. When fully operational - HR is a critical function - it is essential to hire staff, train staff, process paperwork for terminations, retirement, benefits… but these functions are not ‘essential’… they can pile up until the government reopens without any serious adverse impacts to the country at-large.</p>
<p>I work in IT. We have a staff of 100-200. We are responsible for functions such as desktop support, network administration, programming and support of in-house program, web site development and support, system security, etc. Out of that staff, I believe there are 2 or 3 labelled essential. Those employees maintain servers that house applications that other sites use and those sites may have essential functions that could be impacted without those servers/applications. When fully functional - these are all necessary functions, people need working computers, applications, email… but they are non-essential functions, during the shut down if your computer breaks - you can find another or you can resort to pen and paper.</p>
<p>Assuming that all functions defined as non-essential are funtions that are not needed and the government can simply do without is not anywhere near accurate. When businesses downsize they analyze the functions that are necessary to run the business and cut positions that can be consolidated or serve no purpose…that is not what defining employees as non-essential is intended to do.</p>
<p>"The level of contempt for federal workers is pretty shocking. "</p>
<p>I’m very saddened that some are venting their spleen at govt workers who have done nothing to cause the deadlock in Congress that is having its repercussions. These workers still need to pay their bills now, like everyone else. Hearing people disparage these hard-working folks who are pawns like all of us taxpayers makes me very sad. They also pay taxes and vote, they also have bills to pay and would have other jobs if they didn’t have their current jobs. </p>
<p>I see nothing constructive in anyone belittling or attacking federal employees who have no power to return to work or decide whether or not to be paid or reimbursed.</p>
<p>The Antarctic season is being shut down. Some excerpts from a friend of a friend’s write-up about the impact of the shutdown:</p>
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<p>and </p>
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<p>MiamiDAP, your comments are insensitive and offensive to many hardworking people who did not choose to take a ‘paid vacation’ - they are suffering and do not deserve to be treated with derision or contempt. Federal employees are decent hardworking people, and they are just the tip of the iceberg. There is a huge ripple effect of the shutdown. There are many people who do not work for the government but are on government contracts - they will NOT get paid for their work, not even retroactively. There are restaurants, hotels, and small businesses (hairdressers, carpenters, house cleaners) who are having a hard time making payroll because their businesses rely on those who are furloughed and are not spending money right now. Our general contractor - who is self employed & does not work for the government - is struggling because his building contracts have been postponed by people whose work status is uncertain. The good citizens of the District of Columbia are facing a disaster because the city relies on Congress to provide money for essential services such as trash collection, water and sewer services, and DC is due to run out of money next week. None of these people ‘decided to take a paid vacation.’ Please direct your anger and contempt at those who are the cause of the problem, not those who are the victims.</p>
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Well, there could be some other reasons.</p>
<p>jrcsmom is correct–many of the workers on furlough are providing important services–it’s just that they can be delayed without causing a catastrophe. Most of them are still going to have to be done eventually.</p>