It seems like just yesterday we had avoided a government shut down by the skin of our teeth. I tried to find when the last one was. I saw this from December 2024 where we narrowly avoided a shut down. But I’m pretty sure we went through this fire drill at least one other time in 2025. If you know, please comment below.
Anyway, it’s a pretty regular occurrence. And I’m sure it is hugely impactful for government employees who are furloughed or even more so for essential government employees who must go to work but won’t get paid (like the TSA).
I won’t go through the details of what’s open and what’s not – everyone else has. You’ll still get your mail, but you may have trouble if you’re heading to a National park.
Failure
But here’s the big headline that most miss. We’re busy thinking about what services will be impacted but:
This is from govfacts.org.
A government shutdown represents one of the most dramatic failures of American democracy.
Routine
Government shut downs have become routine. Here are some fun facts from The Hill
But even more common than the shut downs are the stories
In December of 2024, I sent a letter to my congresspeople about my thoughts on the then impending shut down. You can read it here.
But the fact that we’re doing the same dance yet again means that this is routine, expected, tolerated.
It Shouldn’t Be
That’s absurd.
Why do we tolerate this? A fundamental responsibility of our elected officials is to establish a budget. Failure should not be an option.
Warren Buffet said he could solve the deficit in 5 minutes. “You just pass a law that says that any time there’s a deficit of more than three percent of GDP, all sitting members of Congress are ineligible for re-election.”
And while the shut downs get the headlines, all the excitement distracts from the bigger problem that we don’t have a sustainable budget. Look at the national debt. Read more here.
National Debt
Here’s where we stand today.
Our country owes $37.5 trillion. That’s a lot. Each tax payer’s share of the debt is $324,123. I can’t afford that – can you?
Less than a year ago, it looked like this.
And in my first post on the US debt, roughly 2 years ago, it looked like:
That’s a 12% increase in about 2 years. We’re spending more.
Get Angry
I’m not trying to ruin your day, but the headline here shouldn’t be that some government services are shut down.
The headline needs to be:
A government shutdown represents one of the most dramatic failures of American democracy.
We should be letting our elected officials know that this is not acceptable.
And each time we vote for an incumbent, we’re telling them that we’re OK with this.
Wrap Up
A government shutdown represents one of the most dramatic failures of American democracy.
That’s the headline.