There Are No Winners Here

White House Chief of Staff welcomes
employees back to work.   NYdailynews.com

It’s Thursday October 17^th. Federal employees across the country returned to work and in D.C., many were greeted with smiles, cheers and accolades. The government shutdown came to an end at approximately 11:28 p.m. Wednesday night, some 30 minutes before the debt ceiling deadline. The world breathed with a sigh of relief. But this is only a short term and temporary fix, we could all experience this again early in 2014.

As President Obama addressed the nation he opened with, “there are no winners here,” and without specifically pointing fingers or identifying individuals, he scolded those responsible for this self-made catastrophe.  To paraphrase, he said there is no place for this behavior in a democracy.  If you want to make changes or are displeased with the status quo, argue your point, get votes, win elections. But don’t

"don’t brake what our predecessors have
spent 2 centuries building."        CNN.com

brake what our predecessors have spent 2 centuries building.  The President emerged looking very much like a chief executive. 

In addition to those furloughed who are anticipating being paid for missed wages.  According to Standards and Poor’s and CNN an estimate in excess of $24 Billion was the cost of the shutdown.  So clearly the loser here was the American economy, the world’s faith in the American system and the American people.

Why did all of this happen? Who is responsible for this fiasco?  In the minds of many Americans, many people don’t really seem to understand.  Many of the common people are caught up, lost and confused by rhetoric spewed with the intent to cloud vision and perception.  

Do organizations such as Koch Industries and The Heritage Foundations, have too much influence and involvement in our political process?  Do corporate sponsors and special interest groups have the well being and benefit of the people in mind? Or perhaps, do these organizations have another agenda? I for one found myself nervous when Republican party members appeared to be having their strings pulled by these entities.

When the shutdown went into effect, shouldn’t the salaries, benefits and services to congress have been the first to go?   What can we, the people, do to ensure this will not occur again? Should congress as a whole be penalized for this entire fiasco?  Who can the American people hold accountable for this? 

Rep Herrera Beutler (R-Wash)
Huffingtonpost.com

The one major noteworthy observation to stem from this Capitol Hill cluster was the performance of many our elected women.  With the likes of Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.), both Democrat and Republican women worked together to resolve this mess created by what appeared to be schoolyard boys bickering and bullying each other.  

Perhaps it is time for the cooler and calmer feminine heads to prevail.  Maybe it is time for a woman president.


I'm not hatin, I'm jus sayin...