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Top 10 Things To Do While The State Is Shutdown
10. Hug a veteran: some of their services might be deemed “essential” but they’re sure to feel a big impact.
9. Take a state employee out to happy hour: they’ll need some cheering up, and a cheap drink.
8. Buy a do-it-yourself book on road repair: someone needs to fix those pesky potholes.
7. Volunteer to help valet park at the emergency room: clinics and care services that shutdown will be redirecting their patient needs to the (much more costly) emergency services.
6. Donate to a nonprofit: not only will a shutdown mean the threat of funding losses for nonprofits but it’ll also mean they’ll need to pick up the slack of what government is no longer doing.
5. Take Grandma to the casino to play the slots so she can replace that missing scratch card fix: a state shutdown means the state lottery will close and remember that 40% of the lottery’s net profits go to the Environment and Natural Resource Trust Fund, so you can extrapolate the consequences from here.
4. Start moving more desks into your kid’s classroom: the Department of Education’s office in charge of granting and renewing teachers’ licenses is likely to close and, I’m told, schools have a thing against letting unlicensed teachers into a classroom.
3. Tether your goat herd on the capital lawn: no one will be mowing while the government is shutdown, I’m sure everyone in St. Paul will really appreciate the help here.
2. Hope it doesn’t storm: the Department of Public Safety does have a contingency plan if that state faces a major emergency during a shutdown but they will not be operating at full capacity.
1. Plan a summer vacation that doesn’t include the words “Minnesota State Park”: Maybe buy a projector and show your kids photos from your favorite trips to state parks from years gone by and pepper your visual tour with phrases like, “In my day the parks were open year round.” Or, heck, take a camping trip to Speaker Zellers’ yard.
Plenty of other posts and news stories will question who is at fault for the shutdown so this is not a story about that question. But there is a broader point to this list: a silver-lining in what will otherwise be a tragic time in our state’s history is that the shutdown will serve as a reminder to the public about the value of the state government.
The state does a lot of good for the people of Minnesota that the private sector could never replace, government has value and what we are going to lose during the shutdown proves that fact. Here’s to hoping our political leaders are reminded of that quickly and a compromise is reached.
Posted in Fiscal Policy | Related Topics: Government Shutdown
13 Comments
July 6, 2011 at 10:39 am
You know Charlie I don’t give a damn what you think. My years of service were 70-72, and politically from 1976 to present how about yours, or were you a draft dodger and a couch potatoe?
July 2, 2011 at 11:09 pm
First off Bill. I don’t believe you are a military veteran of any era as you just said era veteran. I believe you are one of those brain washed minions paid by the likes of oligarchs like the Koch Brothers to try to spread the nonsense and outright lies of the right wing by endlessly regurgitating the talking points you get from Faux News and bloviators such as the drug addled gas bag Rush Limbaugh. In fact I doubt you know what the word oligarch means . You should look it up. And while you’re at it Bill , why don’t you go out and find a job and see what our low taxes on the rich economy is really like. The right wing has gotten every tax cut they ever wanted while claiming it would stimulate the economy and job growth and stimulate tax revenues from all these magical tax cuts for the rich. Where are the jobs these tax cuts were supposed to produce? where is the increased revenues for the Government that was promised? Oh I’m sorry, I forgot , brain washed morons such as yourself don’t actually retain what Faux News feeds you or cross check the shit they fed you last year to the shit they’re feeding you this year. You merely regurgitate what they tell you to. Check out 1984 by George Orwell and reference “The Memory Hole”. That was a challenge I am confident you will not take as you are a right winger and right wingers are too cowardly and frightened and hate filled to ever examine or test their own convictions
July 2, 2011 at 9:33 pm
Blue collar jobs went the way they did because they and their unions didn’t stand up to their employers AND the stopped voting for democratic candidates for governor…until recently. None of that is the fault of government workers.
June 30, 2011 at 4:53 pm
Sorry Sean but that doesn’t float for this era Vet. your willingness to give away the infringements allready made against our rights and make now the starting point does not impress me as being very American of you. Particularly since the 1964 civil rights act and the not civil rights garbage that came with it. I am speaking of the public employee rise to power that has strangled us in 45 years. All top down Socialistic sewage must go. It does not work in countries our size and is rediculas to continue trying. Put the power back in the hands of local people where it belongs. As for you public employee’s, get back to work and keep you noses out of our buisness, ruling us is not your buisness. Your just grease on the wheels, knowing ones place is important.
June 30, 2011 at 10:24 am
This whole notion that government crushes indivudal freedom and liberty gets overcooked after a while. We’ve got far more meaningful freedom and liberty here than in places that have no functioning government.
Who’s looking out for women’s rights, the disabled or the elderly in Somalia? Is the local warlord going to give you a fair shake if someone violates a contract?
Our government is far from perfect, but it in fact—on net—increases freedom and liberty instead of reducing it.
June 30, 2011 at 10:22 am
Of all those 10 things listed, exactly how does government intrude into your freedom? Be specific, none of this all government is bad garbage. 2020 has provided a list of specific governmental services you have provided no justification or proof of your statement.
June 30, 2011 at 10:11 am
Are you advocating something like this?
“Anarchism… stands for liberation of the human mind and the dominion of religion; the liberation of the human body from the dominion of property; liberation from shackles and restraint of government. It stands for social order based on the free grouping of individuals.”
June 30, 2011 at 10:01 am
In a perverse way, it might be even more valuable to have a TOTAL shutdown of all state government services. It would be an object lesson to those who demean government, as to it true value and contribution to a safe, healthy, secure society.
June 30, 2011 at 9:46 am
Yup Mike - free to have a boat on a lake and be drunk without some pesky DNR person catching you, free to swim in a lake without that interfering life guard, free to manage that tree that oh-so-disobilgingly dropped its branch on the road - just missing your car, but now the road is impassable, free to deal with the traffic light that doesn’t work ... Free to pay your employees what you want (never mind that they do not have enough funds for food), free to employ child labor for practically nothing. Oh yes - government infringes on freedom - freedom to be avaricious, territorial and mindless. Give me government any day! You cannot have lived in a country where private companies hold sway - unfettered. I tell you, it is an experience to know that nothing stands between them and you - if they want what you have.
And you clearly have not visited some of the southern states where the education is appalling, the roads are dreadful, the trash collection is almost non-existent and the health care - well we won’t go there. Try it. As an immigrant to this country I am dismayed (an understatement) at the callousness of many of its citizens towards those who do not fit the “Leave it to Beaver” life.
June 30, 2011 at 9:42 am
Ending unsustainable government and fuzzy math needs to be our present, NOT FUTURE, top priority. While White collar public employees have pretty well held their own, we in the blue collar haven’t. I am working for a lower wage today than I did 30 years ago while being at the top of this proffesion now. I sure am glad for all that help I got from my supposed allies. It is time for the public employee, middle class, to bleed a little after your 45 year run almost unchallenged. You don’t rule the roost any more.
June 30, 2011 at 9:31 am
Mikes comment is wonderfully one sided…
you think government intrudes on your privacy?!
Turn your brain on for a moment and consider how the banks and credit card companies conspire to send your complete financial history and personal info to to companies you never heard of, or worse design systems like Credit/debit cards that let everyone be open to ID theft…and then have to pay our own time/money to clean up mess when it happens or be forced to permanently carry police incident papers to explain how you are not responsible for the crime…
Brains come with two sides Mike, why don’t you go and find your missing half.
June 30, 2011 at 9:03 am
The #1 thing to do is to be thankful for freedom & liberty and enjoy your life, your relatives and your friends.
Yes government provides a few positives to society. However, you will realize that government only intrudes on your individual freedoms & liberty in doing so.
BAMN says:
July 6, 2011 at 4:12 pm
Here is my solution to our current budget impasse:
Increase taxes on the 1% of wage earners, but allow a tax credit (1% of the increase in taxes that they would pay) if:
The taxpayer allows an audit on all hired employees to see that they did not hire illegals or H1 visa holders when they could have hired a US citizen in order to avoid paying fair wages or healthcare benefits. If they profited by doing so, and the state, as a consequence, had to pickup the missed health care, education expenses, etc, then they do not get the tax credit.
Sounds fair to me.