Stop This

I’m back from vacation. Yet our federal government remains shutdown. I actually ran into some shutdown services while vacationing. For me, they were nothing more than inconveniences. Though, man, am I glad we decided to go to the coast instead of Yosemite this trip. But for others the shutdown is a very real hardship. Funding for WIC nutrition program has dried up, meaning women and children who rely on the government assistance are going hungry. Funding for the National Institute of Health has stopped accepting new patients and conducting clinical trials on potentially life-saving treatments. Funding for our national parks has stopped, which means all of our national parks – including Yosemite – and monuments are closed. No EPA food checks, no federal small business loans, no NASA research and no paychecks for some 800,000 “non-essential” federal employees. I could go on.

Why? All because the Republican Party is throwing a temper tantrum about Obamacare. Something that was passed by both the House and Senate and signed into law. Don’t like a democratically approved law? Then try to repeal it through proper channels. Don’t hold the entire country hostage with the threat of not funding it and shutting down the government and possibly sending us into default by not raising the debt limit meanwhile costing us hundreds of millions a day and possibly billions before this whole power play is over. Oh, and all those representatives refusing to do their jobs? They’re still getting their paychecks while others suffer. It’s so fucking frustrating.

But as they say, if we don’t laugh we cry. So please enjoy Miley Cyrus’ dead-accurate “We Can’t Stop” parody. It’s beyond creepy and you’ll never get that image of professional Oompa Loompa John Boehner twerking in a white cut-out leotard bodysuit out of your head.