As this “shutdown” continues we see more demonstrations of its arbitrary nature. First of all, this isn’t a shutdown. A shutdown would imply a complete end to all government provided services. Instead, what we have, is an inconvenience. The only things being shutdown are ones that cause direct harm or inconvenience to the general public. In fact, as demonstrated by the blockage of a World War II memorial, the government has actually invest time and resources into this inconvenience. Many parks and memorials that are unmanned or maintain a minimal staff are now surrounded by police officers who are tasked with keeping everybody out.
If that didn’t make it apparent that this shutdown is a direct swipe at the general population this should:
The IRS is still collecting taxes during the government shutdown, but it isn’t sending refunds — and it also has stopped complying with a subpoena to turn over documents to members of Congress who are investigating the agency’s targeting of tea party groups.
The government will still pay people to rob you at gunpoint but it won’t pay people to send you refunds or documents that have been subpoenaed, which should slap the bigwigs in the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) with contempt of Congress.
Instead of referring to this “shutdown” as a shutdown we should call it what it really is: a giant dick waving competition. Right now the Republicans and Democrats are pulling out tape measures and seeing who has the longer dick. Because both sides are coming up short they’ve decided to take their anger out on all of us. The only question we should be asking is, why the fuck do we take these children seriously and allow them to run our lives?