The following columnists are being considered to become the Tribune’s new weekly columnist. Please send your thoughts about the columnists to Managing Editor Sarah Stultz by email at sarah.stultz@albertleatribune.com or by mail at 808 W. Front St. Please clarify in your comments whether your remarks are intended to be printed as a letter to the editor or simply read by the Editorial Board.

 

Guest Column by Linda Peterson

 

A new year. Another new beginning. What will this new year bring?

If not peace on Earth, could we at least hope for unity for our country? That our statesman could bring themselves to reach across the aisle in search of the greater good instead of anticipating or inciting the next monumental tantrum?

Is it too much to expect of the politicians whom we elected that they govern instead of grandstand?

Did anyone even consider, while on one hand touting efforts to contain our country’s bloated budget, our leaders acknowledge the cost of the government shutdown? Surely a team of government bean-counters could figure this out.

Then again, the powers that be probably don’t want John Q. Public to know the bottom line.

In late 2017,with a threatened shutdown, it was predicted that such an occurrence at that time would cost over $6 billion a week. With the present standoff going into its 12th day, the cost just keeps tallying. The amount of debt accruing, might in another form put a pretty good sized chink in the national debt.

And that isn’t even accounting for all the ripple effect to the economy from this wily action. While 70 percent of the government is funded, departments such as state, justice,agriculture,transportation, interior and Homeland Security have yet to be funded. Hello? Homeland Security.

Not only that, but smaller agencies such as the SBA are at this time nonfunctional.

The furloughed employees of these departments and agencies are not frequenting the businesses they normally patronize during a normal work week. These agencies and department offices are spread across several states, not located just in D.C.

This puts a large hole into the bottom line for these businesses, possibly laying off or severely impacting their employees’ incomes.

And don’t even get me started on what this buffoonery is doing to the stock market.

Isn’t it time for those responsible to put on their big boy panties, forget the egos and find a solution to this impasse? We as a people should demand it. Enough already.

Linda Peterson is a retired farmwife who has written columns for a Glenville-Emmons paper and is working on a memoir.