Monday, September 30, 2013

Some Last Hurrah Before the Crunch!

October is our major fundraising month on the job, so everybody works extremely hard. For myself, I am working 28 shifts for the month- not 28 days, though, most of the weekends, I'll be pulling doubles. I had planned a bit of a breather, but I had to come in on an ad hoc basis tonight, on my day off. Last night, I had to give a site orientation to two groups of contractors who are working for the creative director who has put together one of our fundraisers. He has assembled an ensemble over the last three years, so I have worked with most of these people before and consider them friends. My usual line about the job is that it is very cushy, except when it isn't, and the usual October crunch has come a bit early this year.

One downside to being so busy is that I haven't been keeping up with the news as well as I'd like to, especially with a looming government shutdown occurring. Am I fortunate to be ensconced in the work bubble? Would I be tearing my hair out (HA!) if I were more current on current events?

3 comments:

ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© said...

"Ensemble...ASSEMPLE!"
~

mikey said...

Summmary - SPOILER ALERT

Some very unhinged ideologues threw a tantrum because the federal government was about to start using some small portion of it's public resources to help poor people get medical care. So they refused to do the routine part of their job unless the President stopped that spending on poor people right NOW!

Meanwhile, the speaker could put a clean CR to a floor vote anytime, and it would pass with mostly minority support, but he has decided for some inexplicable reason that he LIKES being speaker and keeping his job is more important than DOING his job.

The shutdown is not an immediate financial crisis, except for those people who aren't getting a paycheck, a loan, a mortgage or any other federal service they depend upon. Most government spending is mandatory spending, which is not covered by appropriations.

BUT. In two weeks the Treasury will have to raise some funds to cover the programs they are legally obligated by laws passed by Congress to pay. However, they will be constrained by a pointless statutory debt ceiling that those people throwing that tantrum refuse to vote to raise. Again, the speaker could resolve this, but did I mention how much he likes his job?

So the Executive branch will be faced by a situation where no matter what they do they will be breaking the law - it will be very ugly, and there will be blood and tears and spittle and bile. And possibly another recession.

That's about it. Do carry on...

mikey said...

On the other hand, for some good news, TBogg couldn't stay quit after all and has re-opened for business at Raw Story, where you can also find Travis Gettys and the artist formerly known as TRex, David Ferguson.

Damn, talk about your media consolidation...