Bright Ideas

The government of the United States opened up last week (for three more weeks) to solve the problem of border security and the President’s preference for a border wall. Federal employees should get paid.

The government had been shut down for over a month. Why? Because the Democratic controlled House of Representatives won’t give the President a border wall, a wall along the border with Mexico. That border is long and the wall not feasible in certain areas.

So the President closed federal offices. We have one of those in Ekalaka, the FSA, Farm Service Agency. Five people work in that office and have for a long time. These may have been able to temporarily fall back on other other sources of income. But in other offices around the country, there are young employees who haven’t had time to build up savings. They might have young families, mortgages, and rely on salaries to meet their obligations.

Has our President ever relied on a salary to meet financial obligations? I don’t think so; he’s always been rich, very, very rich. If the President doesn’t get his way, he just closes federal offices everywhere. It doesn’t matter who gets hurt. That doesn’t seem very Presidential to me.

It’s easy for me to criticize; I’m a Democrat, one of the few in Carter County, but I know Republicans who couldn’t vote for Donald Trump. They couldn’t get behind a “reality” television host. What did he know about governing?

Start acting Presidential. I could get behind that man. Couldn’t you?