Seth

I see both sides, actually.

Side 1 is that Pelosi is more responsible for the shutdown than Trump -- she was for spending money on the wall until Trump was, then for pure, screw everybody but her party politics she was suddenly against it. Then there's the fact that Republicans put two bills forward to pay those employees during the shutdown and Pelosi and the Dems rejected them-- why? Because she needed hostages, people to suffer that she could blame Trump for. Pretty low down, wouldn't you say?

2. Those government employees, with the exception of the Coast Guard and DHS employees, are paid 20-30k a year more with beau c**ps more benefits than private sector employees doing the same work, only the govt people put in about 1/5 the actual work, employee for employee, that the workers do whose hard earned taxes pay their better salaries and benefits.

If they can't save enough 💰 to hold them over for a couple of months, maybe this situation which has now been temporarily terminated, anyway, will serve to teach them a lesson about managing their money.

1ProudAmerican

No, AH, I'm a RESPONSIBLE adult American who looks after herself and doesn't expect someone else to do it...you might want to try it …. must not have been your day to use one of the few remaining DEMONcRAT brain cells

Smedley_buzkill

I have said that the shutdown mostly consists of non essential government employees getting paid to stay home and not work as opposed to going to work and not working.
I don't see how DHS and especially the Coast Guard can be considered non-essential. Tell that to some of the mariners in distress whose lives they have saved.

Seth

2.
Iknow where you're coming from, Smedley.

The Coast Guard was my service, in which I was a boatswain's mate, one of the folks who handled the hands-on aspects of SAR.

I wasn't happy to see Coasties getting their pay held back, not at all, and I blame the Dems 100 per cent.

Smedley_buzkill

I was Army, but I lived on the Florida coast for years, and I worked for the Navy as a civilian employee also. The Coast Guard intercepts lots of dope, and the dopes who smuggle it. They do lots of search and rescue, and provide all sorts of maritime services. They are NOT non-essential. Maybe if you live in Iowa.

archie bunker Loc: Texas

Or the Texas Panhandle. We need Border Patrol here. Seems like we're right on the border sometimes.

Seth

SAR = Search and Rescue.

Also, back in the stoneage when I was in, the fledgling DEA were mostly chasing opium smugglers around the Golden Triangle while most of the maritime drug interdiction here was addressed by the Coast Guard working with Customs. I was in on some of that as well, including a short stint working out of Customs regional HQ in Miami.

From the mid 1960s to 1970 (before my time by a couple of years) the 'Guard was in Vietnam, and many years after my time they were in Iraq (or should I say, off Iraq). I was on 2 cutters that did REFTRA with the Navy, one at GITMO, one at San Diego.

I have nothing but great things to say about USCG.