Well it’s been over a week off of work for me and a lot of my fellow Federal employees. This is a Government Shutdown. I wouldn’t call this a vacation. I would call it everyday life coming up to smack you in the face. You see, most Federal employees do not get paid like they would do in the public sector. Yes, we get job security, maybe some more time off and sometimes it’s hard to fire us. I am part of the group of Federal employees that doesn’t get paid as much. Before October 1st, I missed 10% of my pay for three pay periods this past summer. That sucked. We tend to eat out more during baseball season for Josh, so that just happened less. Our pantry went a tad lower but we survived.

I see stories of how veterans are getting denied access to monuments, mothers not getting their proper nutrition, and others not getting their houses or retirements. I feel sorry for all of them. I believe there are millions of people being affected by this shutdown. What about the snack shop in our building run by the blind couple? What about the lunch places around one of our campus locations that hold 3000 or more employees? I also know I am not paying city earnings tax for these days so even the local communities that have Federal employees are being hit.

Something has to be done. I am not a political guy. Get the two sides to meet. Whoever needs to talk to get this done. I don’t care about no fiscal cliff, or whatever party you belong to. Millions of Americans are being affected by this shutdown. I don’t want to miss all this pay, but I will survive. Heck some of the people that are working are not guaranteed to get paid. Fix this mess you started or nobody will be reelected. As of today I am voting for the other guy no matter who it is. If you as a politician could not do something to stop this, let’s get someone else in who might no matter their political party.