COLUMN: When does the drama end?

The picture I saw of New York Democrat Senator Chuck Schumer did not make me all smiles and thumbs up, like he.

When Congress approved a 45-day budget (really, that is what it is) he was photographed with that look. I wondered if that was to make the people of this country feel good and secure to prevent a government shut down on Oct. 1. The last-minute deal, no, another last-minute deal, prevented financial and even more political chaos.

It was deja vu.

If you have short-term memory loss (and I wish I did for this stuff), according to the Associated Press on June 2, “Fending off a U.S. default, the Senate gave final approval late Thursday to a debt ceiling and budget cuts package, grinding into the night to wrap up work on the bipartisan deal and send it to President Joe Biden’s desk to become law before the fast-approaching deadline. The compromise package negotiated between Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy leaves neither Republicans nor Democrats fully pleased with the outcome.”

Four months apart and we have shampoo bottle instructions; wet hair, lather, rinse, repeat. It was just under different financial situations.

I’m not pleased with outcomes any of our elected officials are involved. And it doesn’t have to involve legislative work. Colorado Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert was escorted out of a Denver theatre for her actions during a stage production. Because the CNA reaches families with young children, I refuse to list details. New York Democrat Rep. Jamall Brown pulled a fire alarm in a Capitol office building to get a locked door open. Isn’t that a worn out middle school prank?

Days after the Oct. 1 shutdown was prevented, Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy from California was removed from the position, a first in American history.

The Oct. 1 deadline was over fundamentally financing the entire government. The government’s fiscal year begins on Oct. 1. My experiences are anecdotal, but I know of small-business owners who have had significant financial surprises. Fortunately, they were able to have a plan and not have detrimental impacts to its employees or customers. I know of other businesses that are horrendous with money management and finance and innocent employees, and even customers, are always the victim; never the administration that made the financial decisions.

Americans under our leadership are the latter.

The federal government was in a shutdown in late 2018. My family had planned a Christmas trip to Disneyworld in Florida. I had considered going two days earlier to visit Everglades National Park in southern Florida. No, couldn’t do that. The shutdown closed the National Parks since the parks were not essential. Meanwhile, I’ve known of small-town pharmacists who filled prescriptions for unique-situation customers on a Sunday when their place is closed and it should not wait until Monday.

I expect to be criticized over not knowing the nuances of federal government operations. It’s difficult to somehow justify those nuances knowing what happens daily on Main Street and people and places who don’t provide the drama. There are solutions at the federal level, but it would be a massively drastic shift in virtually everything. No one wants to start that list. So we take it one proverbial crumb at a time.

I struggle with knowing how Congress regulates our banks that tells its debt-drowning clients they can’t have more debt. (At least the banks I know.) The June 1 agreement includes the feds can borrow as much as it needs to pay bills until January 2025.

I don’t know anyone whose bank treats them the same. Our country’s staggering debt is the financial shadow that is never going away. It just keeps growing.

During my lifetime we have had six Republican and four Democrat presidents. Both have had the same number of presidents with consecutive terms. Control of Congress has shifted back and forth, too. I think it is safe to say no one has had a dominating control of the White House and the Capital during that time frame. But the problems still overlap into the next administration or make up of Congress. New problems get created.

We hear the same campaign issues every four years usually under the ad nauseam guise of it being “the most important election in a lifetime.”

Go ahead, pick your side and then accuse me of not knowing enough about government to understand who really is to blame. I don’t care. I blame both parties. They have had their chances, and chances to work together, and fail to improve conditions. They only duct tape problems and replace duct tape and wait to the last minute to put on a another chunk. Their work needs done sooner and better.

Let’s save the last-second heroics to sports and James Bond movies. That feels better. And it looks better than smiles and thumbs up.