Spare the Rod, Spoil the Policymaker

          Politicians love to toss around stories of “hardworking Americans” and “small business owners” who, presumably either because of something the politician has done, or because of something their opponent wants to stop from happening, are able to achieve the “American dream”.

                My parents are small business owners. They’re hardworking Americans. They do what they love for a living, in a business that they built from the ground up. It just doesn’t get more American Dream-y than that. They, like many of the 4,000 or so residents of my hometown in Tennessee, make their living solely through the tourism that comes through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Today, American politicians’ inability to perform their basic functions led to the indefinite closing of that park, and just like that: my parents have to close their business today. Probably tomorrow. Maybe all week.

At first glance this doesn’t seem like that big of a deal. Free day off! As someone on my Facebook news feed said today: “LOL chill out.” Because things will be back to normal in no time. The problem is, though, that even just a day off work for many Americans is a day that we can’t afford. It’s a day of taking losses not only for yourself, but for your employees who count on you as a steady way to pay their bills. It’s less money for your children, who count on you to feed and care for them. It’s another hundred dollars you don’t have that makes your budget for the month even tighter. Most of the people I know in Gatlinburg’s tourist economy, no matter how hardworking, live constantly on the edge of real financial hardship. This recession hit tourism like a sledgehammer, and after several years of building back up, losing income again during the busiest month of the season will be absolutely devastating. So, no. We can’t chill out. We can’t afford even a day off without pay during the last month that we’ll make real money before winter hits. Not to mention that according to Forbes, if the shutdown lasts 3-4 weeks, it’s estimated to cost us about $55 billion dollars.

            A $55 billion dollar temper tantrum.

Of course, we should count our blessings. Over a million Americans today reported to work knowing that they would not be paid. A million. Meanwhile, the people responsible for shutting down the government will continue to make almost $500 today and every day that the shutdown continues. Of course, we’re assured that the current free labor will be paid for eventually, but clearly it’s nobody’s top priority.

Today, Congress forced their constituents to work for free so that they could prove a point. Even while those affected by the shutdown either work for free or are forced home from their jobs without pay, they still have to pay exorbitant salaries to their representatives. This extortion is happening in order to stop hardworking Americans from receiving health care that would otherwise be denied to them because they’re too sick or too poor. Today, our government representation made us look like an incompetent, weak, and embarrassingly flawed country. The NYT reported that one Swiss tourist said of us today: “We don’t have the same problems (as the U.S.)...We are not a third-world country.”

Government workers, small business owners, students, teachers, people who think we're better than Switzerland: this shutdown affects us all. I hope it serves as the wakeup call we need to start calling out our representatives by name when they fail us. I’ll go first: Congressman Phil Roe. That’s the man whose vote represented Gatlinburg. His is the name I hope Tennessee remembers for the next election, when they think about the paycheck they got in October of 2013. For everybody else, here’s the list. If you want it to change, call them. Write them. Vote them out. We’re in charge here. These people work for us. It’s time they were reminded of that.

A lot of us have livelihoods that depend on it.