Call Their Bluff and Shut It All Down

Are you as tired as I am of Congress – first one party and then the other – threatening to shut down the federal government? If so, I invite you to join me in calling their bluff.

As I listened to Morning Joe (or morning joe as Joe Scarborough calls his show with a false sense of humility) last week, I couldn’t help but laugh and then gag as Joe and his cohost wife breathlessly talked about the Republican battle to fill the Speaker of the House vacancy. Joe, a former GOP congressman from New York who should know better, kept using words like “chaos” to describe the behind-the-scenes machinations on Capitol Hill.

Joe and Mika – I bet they have at least one mutual friend named Buffy – lamented how the fight between Rep. Steve Scalise and Rep. Jim Jordan was preventing the House from taking up “the people’s business.” MSNBC’s laminated version of the Bobbsey Twins then tried their best to list some hot button issues that, without immediate attention, would result in the demise of democracy if not the fall of western civilization as we know it.

Guess what, Joe and Mika? I’m not buying it. In fact, I am willing to go “all in” and call your bluff, because from my decades of watching Congress act like a bunch of petulant preschoolers fighting over their half of the sandbox, I think the only chaos that takes place in Washington is when the House and Senate are in session… not when they are sent home without a paycheck.

And so, that is exactly what I propose. In fact, I will gladly make my way north to the Beltway Swamp and help all 425 representatives and all 100 senators pack their bags. I’ll even arrange for transportation to the airport or the train station. Better yet, let’s make them all ride a Greyhound bus (I hope the A/C breaks down en route) back to their home districts to explain to their hardworking constituents why they are so dysfunctional.

Sound a little harsh? On the contrary, I think such action is long overdue. After all, in the private sector you either produce or you are handed your walking papers in very short order. The same goes for non-profits, where every penny is scrutinized before it is spent.

Remember the last time Congress was at an impasse and the federal government was forced to shut down? If memory serves me correctly, the earth continued to rotate on its axis and we somehow avoided being obliterated by a super nova falling from the sky.
What actually happened was that all “nonessential” personnel were furloughed, which begs the question: if they are nonessential, why were they hired in the first place? Contrary to Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer’s scare tactics, our serviceman and women didn’t miss a single paycheck and seniors continued to receive their Social Security checks on time.

What else does Congress really need to do? They’ve already proven that they can’t (or won’t) fix the border crisis… or prevent fentanyl deaths… or put an end to human trafficking. Instead, they are focused on “the existential threat” of climate change and ensuring that prepubescent children can undergo gender-reassignment surgery – otherwise known as bodily mutilation – without their parents’ consent.

As long as mothers can murder their own children in the womb, all is well in the Democratic caucus. And as long as Republicans are permitted to spend as if Uncle Sam had issued them each a Bloomingdale’s credit card with no limit, they are happy too.

The same goes for the communist clowns that live and work at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. There is no way you can convince me that President Biden, his cabinet, and his staff are working in the best interests of the American people. They are either too stupid to know what that is… or they truly don’t care. It’s your call which is worse: incompetence or an intentional dismantling of the United States, its Judeo-Christian founding principles, and its once-secure borders.

Either way, I don’t think hanging a “Gone fishing” sign on the door of the White House and the U.S. Capitol would create any permanent damage. In fact, it might just prove the sneaky suspicion I’ve had all along: with a few notable exceptions, they are nothing but a bunch of egotistical and narcissistic freeloaders.