April 7, 2011
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On Not Having Representation
I don’t have that much to say this week. DC has been rife with nerves (which has inevitably rubbed off on me) and if you watch the news at all you know why. If the government shutdown happens, our lives in the District may be seriously disrupted. The city’s funding is all sorts of tied up in Congress.
Here are just a few city services that may be affected:
- Libraries will be shut during the shutdown
- The DMV may be shut as well
- While Metro will not be closed, they are planning to run less and shorter trains
- Parking will not be enforced
- Smithsonian museums and the zoo will be closed
- Trash won’t be picked up (major ick)It’s so frustrating that Congress would put ideology over keeping some of the federal city’s basic services running. Not having representation basically sucks. I’m really hoping that even if there is a shutdown that Congress will at least have the decency to give the city a little money to keep things like trash pick-up running.
On top of the service issue, this area is going to take a huge hit financially. DC thrives on tourism and so many tourists come to see things like the Smithsonian museums and our memorials. The tourists aren’t going to be shopping here or eating in our restaurants… sigh.
Here’s to hoping that something gets turned around soon…
Comments (9)
This could affect my commute greatly, that is if we still are required to go to work in supporting our government clients.
Our gov’t sucks.
Hopefully it doesn’t get that bad. That would be really awful.
I feel you. I’m not exactly thrilled to be living off my accrued leave for the forseeable future…
I hope that doesn’t happen.
But isn’t “pragmatism” or an underlying assumption that things should continue to work also an ideological tenet?
It’s a pet peeve of mine when people say “they put ideology first” when what they mean is “they chose an ideology that isn’t mine.”
I sincerely do hope, though, that you and your beltway cohorts are able to live and work safely and in a way that doesn’t cause any undue stress. My dad’s a government employee and we’re all pretty nervous about the whole shut down scenario.
Like you I find this govt shut down frightening too but it also makes me angry that our elected officials forget who they work for, and instead of them all working together for the good of the people, they fight and argue and we all suffer the consequences.
@stupid_systemus - @Roadlesstaken - @Redshirte - @ZSA_MD - Looks like we’re safe!
@npr32486 - Many times I believe that.
@TutelageOfTheMundane - I was coming at it more from the angle that the policy riders that were tagged on to some of the budget agreements incorporated things that are highly politically and emotionally charged (the issue with Planned Parenthood comes to mind). At this point, we should have set a budget over six months ago in order to coincide with the beginning of the fiscal year. I believe that to get this far in the fiscal year and then to decide to bring in some of these highly charged items now, wasn’t the best thing to do.
I believe that there are many things in the budget that are less so politically and emotionally charged and those items are what should have been cut first. It’s not the so-called “sexy” ticket items that have the ability to excite or infuriate the base of either party but it’s a necessary step in order to make strides towards balancing the budget.
@tymedancer - Indeed.
@TheCheshireGrins - I read more about it and it seems that these deals usually end up as late just like this one. The media made this a bigger than deal that it is. Slow news.