Essential Personnel?

Sin and some of our other readers who are "foreigners" may be a little curious about what the fuck is going on here in the good old USA.

Well of course there are two sides of most stories, and the "main stream media" likes to pretend that each side is equally valid, even when one side may be full of excrement. But here at UCTMW we are free to eschew many of the boring rules that bind "journalists", so  I am free to sum it all up in a less varnished form.... stay with me here....

1. Back in 2010 or so, Congress passed and the President signed a law that was supposed to allow most Americans to get "affordable" health care.... like most of you folks in the developed world long have had. It's a rube goldberg type contraption, which was required to buy off the big health insurers, medical and hospital lobbyists, drug and medical device makers who can lead most of our members of Congress around by the nose. Nevertheless, the members of the Republican party in our Congress unanimously opposed this contraption as a bound to fail "big gubmint" experiment that was a threat to our freedoms. In their view health care is not a right, but a product. You get what you can pay for, and no more!

2. Republicans took over one house of our Congress in 2010, led by a "Tea Party" faction (named after those Bostonians who tossed British Tea into the drink back in the 1700's because they thought the tea taxes were too high). Tea Partiers have a problem with a whole bunch of folks who did not look like "Real Americans" who they believed were "taking over" their country. Many of these folks believed the President is not a "real American", question his birth certificate, yada yada. Repealing "Obamacare" became their rallying cry.

3. In 2012, the voters did not buy this particular product, re-electing the President, and rejecting the guy who said he would repeal Obamacare. (The same guy who had "invented" Obamacare in Massachusetts, but that's a whole different story).

4. Now, a year later, ignoring those election results, the Republicans in the House of Representatives say they won't authorize spending another dime of federal money - as is their right - until the President and the other chamber of Congress agree to pull the plug on that evil health care program they call Obamacare.  Well.... not exactly another dime.... "essential" personnel still get paid. And of course the Members of Congress and their loyal staffers are "essential". (at least they are sticking to that story). So is the President and some of his senior staffers.... and about 1/2 of the federal work force.

How they decide who's essential? Who the hell knows. About 800,000 federal workers have been laid off.... millions more are still showing up for work, but have no idea when they will be paid. Soldiers are getting paid. But not the guys who protect Congress or the President. Or Park Rangers.

National Parks are closed. Little kids are getting turned away from their pre-school classes. Or their cancer treatment at the National Institutes for Health.

Naturally there are lots of fingers being pointed in every direction. The House won't vote simply to pay for the government, even though all of us saps are still paying our taxes, unless it's tied to canceling health insurance for millions of people who don't have it now.  The President and the Senate won't go for the Obamacare poison pill. So there is a stalemate, with both sides digging in their heals.

Who knows when this will end. Or if in 2 weeks Congress will let America default on it's debt, letting all those countries and banks and investors who buy our "gold plated" bonds twisting in the winds.

Crazy, right? It's making the good old USA look like a banana republic. Or Italy. But with worse food and shorter lunch breaks
.

It's also making this old Slave wonder whether I'm essential. And if not, how do I make sure I am. Unfortunately, I've been out of town these last two days, at a really boring seminar. Poor Mistress is home alone, working like crazy. Working so hard in fact that she's had very little time or interest in finding a supplemental cock to entertain her, particularly on days (or nights) like this when Slave is inaccessible and not available to properly serve her needs.

One thing is certain: no one will ever consider you "essential" if you aren't there to regularly and persistently demonstrate those qualities that are so compelling and irreplaceable that your employer (or Mistress) can't even imagine going a day without you!

Slave better get his ass back to River City pronto, before Mistress shuts ME down.