January 23, 2019
Now that our federal government has been shuttered for 33 days, the impact is being felt beyond the 800,000 federal workers (and countless federal contractors) going without pay. Yesterday, the Commandant of the Coast Guard released an unprecedented video decrying the fact that service members had rely on food pantries while protecting our nation’s coasts without pay, (Source: ‘Unacceptable’: Coast Guard’s top officer criticizes lack of payment in government shutdown”, by Dan LaMothe, The Washington Post, 1/22/19). The FBI Agents Association released an anonymous report depicting an agency whose investigative capabilities had been crippled by lack of funds. In the Southern District of New York, the district executive said that if the shutdown was not resolved by this Friday, it would activate the pandemic emergency plan developed in 2005 in the wake of the “bird flu” outbreak, (Source: “City’s Federal Courts Brace for Full Force of Shutdown By Beth Fertig, WNYC.com, 1/22/19). Continue reading “America Held Hostage (h/t David Frum)”