Sorry, I Don’t Feel Sorry For Furloughed Feds

[Right_in_Virginia]

Sorry, I Don’t Feel Sorry For Furloughed Feds
American Spectator, Jan 11, 2019, David Catron

Now that the nation has heard the President explain how he wants to address our immigration crisis, and we have all enjoyed the comic relief offered by Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer in lieu of a serious response, the media have launched a propaganda campaign they hope will pull the Democrats from the ditch they have driven into regarding “the wall.” But our friends in the Fourth Estate are approaching the project in a manner that merely highlights how divorced they are from the world beyond the Beltway. Their primary focus involves the heartrending human tragedy of … idle bureaucrats.

But most Americans regard “idle” and “bureaucrat” as synonyms. For those of us who have spent our lives toiling in the private sector, where employees are expected to produce things, “nonessential worker” is a concept that has no meaning. In the real world beyond the Beltway, businesses hire people because they have some “essential” task that must be performed. Thus, we aren’t often moved to tears when told “nonessential workers” will be sent home because of a government shutdown, Yet major news outlets actually expect us to be swayed by stories like this from the Wall Street Journal:

Rusty Long is debating which bills to pay and which to hold off on, as he plans to miss his first paycheck on Friday, along with hundreds of thousands of other federal employees … “We’re not going out to eat, we’re cooking every meal at home, and there were conversations about what could we stop if we needed to and what could I do to bring in additional income,” he said.

I’m sure Rusty and his family are fine folks, but he’s an architect who works for the Agriculture Department. I have no idea why that bloated bureaucracy needs architects, but I’m willing to bet he could find a job outside the government. So, the first question that occurred to me when I read this story is: Why is money being removed from my paycheck and given to such people in the first place? And, as human tragedies go, that the Longs are forced to manage their budget carefully and are unable to eat out often isn’t very impressive.


More:  https://spectator.org/sorry-i-dont-feel-sorry-for-furloughed-feds/