shutdown

taking a short break from poverty research to update you all about the government shutdown situation. and then giving a little insight from a federal government worker who would be one of the 800,000 who would not be allowed to work on monday if it did shut down. as hopefully all of you have read, last night they passed a short term continuing resolution (CR) that will fund the government until Thursday to get the rest of the budget legislation and such passed. $38 billion in cuts, and thankfully no rider regarding women's health at all. i think every woman in DC would rally on the mall if that crap happens. that stuff is going to a vote next week, and it won't pass in the Senate. not a chance in hell.

however, one of the riders that did pass was Boehner's favorite DC Opportunity Scholarship program, which spends roughly $13M in funds for DC students to get vouchers and has not proven to work in the last 7 years. no empirical evidence showing that there have been any gains. . but no worries! fiscal austerity, right? i just hate that Boehner does crap like this to feel better about helping poor kids when it doesn't help at all, when the public school system is in shambles and there is little funding for any other large scale anti-poverty programs or initiatives at all in DC or in the even worse-off Prince George's county. don't even get me started on PG county. give me a call if you want an earful (which you don't, i guarantee you)... but i digress.

that means i get to go to work until Thursday. yep, the whole thing is is as ridiculous as it sounds.

friday i spent my entire day at the office getting emails about shutdown procedures, surrendering blackberry's and email addresses at the stroke of midnight, and refreshing the CNN political ticker every twenty minutes. everyone i know was watching MSNBC and CNN last night like it was the Oscars. preparing for this foolishness took basically the entire days of wednesday, thursday and friday for everyone's support staff. the whole thing was a circus. the good news is everyone can still get paid. including my little pittance of a paycheck -- which enables me to buy food. phew.

i continue to be amazed at the absurdity of my life. back to tax-base sharing for regional development intiatives! yeeeaaahhh!