shutdown

[psocoptera]

So first I read that the shutdown includes WIC, which, seriously, that's not considered a matter of health and safety? I mean absolutely no disrespect to people utilizing WIC when I say that most of them likely have enough difficult stuff going on in their lives already without taking away something they may be counting on to help them feed their kids. And then I read that the NIH isn't going to be able to enroll people into clinical trials, and, okay, I think "the desperate families of kids with cancer" probably even beats "babies in poverty" as a demographic that does not need any additional bullshit in their lives. Come *on*.

Although, oddly, I do continue to believe shutting down the government is a valid tactic. Not *this* shutdown, this shutdown is appalling and ridiculous. But if Congress had gotten together a few years ago and taken a stand about torture, say? Said that due process and abstention from cruel and unusual punishment were bedrock values of our country and we couldn't pretend to be the United States if we were going to accept torture so we weren't going to get to have a functional nation until we sorted that out? I think I would have given that a standing ovation even if the fallout to WIC, NIH, etc was exactly the same. So I guess I am curious whether I'm in the minority on that, or if other people also have ideological points that they would consider worth it. (Uh, I mean "other people with similar values to me", if you're just as glad to see WIC get turned off anyways, pls do not bother to comment.)

Comments

[gannet.livejournal.com]

Yes. This is when we should have an immediate closure of government and new elections.

[gannet.livejournal.com]

(Of the sort that parliamentary democracies regularly do, that doesn't involve interruption of usual services.)