As the consequences of the federal government shutdown continue to play out, it is pretty clear that in spite of all the complaints about our government, we miss it when it isn’t there. Congress should be focused on how government can encourage economic development, not on creating a crisis that threatens our fragile economic recovery.
In recent years, we have seen over and over how an anti-government faction in Washington has threatened to bring our country to the brink in order to force concessions instead of working toward an honest compromise. That is what passes for business as usual in this Congress. It is not how government should function, and people in Maine and around the country are fed up with it. It’s time for politicians to stop trying to run our government into the ground and start running it well.
Now that the federal government is open again, the immediate damage of the shutdown is behind us. The lasting economic impact will take some time to understand. What we do know is that if this anti-government trend in Washington continues, Maine stands to suffer. A recent study ranked the negative impact of the shutdown by state and found Maine is the fifth most affected state: Maine’s federal workers and federally funded state workers won’t know when their next paycheck will be, our veterans will be waiting longer for their benefits, our seniors who rely on Social Security would be in jeopardy, and our small businesses won’t be able to get federally secured loans to help them grow. This is shameful and wrong.
During the shutdown, I heard from several constituents who faced the uncertainty of not knowing when their next paycheck would come. Those who were furloughed knew they would eventually be paid, but bills didn’t stop coming because the government was shut down. People who work full-time shouldn’t be struggling to put food on the table, gas in their tanks, or keep their kids in day care. Veterans who served our country bravely and seniors who worked hard and paid into Social Security shouldn’t find themselves with a handful of empty promises.
Our government is not some abstract idea. Government is how we describe these important programs and the many others that we have decided to do together. Shutdown politics are no way to run a country or a state.
When Gov. Paul LePage threatened to shut down our state government and vetoed the bipartisan budget, lawmakers in Augusta avoided it by working together to override his veto and keep our state funded. Governing means finding a way to work with people you may not agree with to make our system work better for the people we represent. It is never easy, but it is necessary, and I am proud that we were able to do so for the good of our state.
We need leaders who are willing to step up and do what’s right to make government work. The people of Maine and millions of Americans deserve better than this politics of obstruction.
— Senator John Tuttle represents Senate District 3, which includes Alfred, Limington, Lyman, Sanford, Springvale and Waterboro. He is the Senate chairman of the Veterans and Legal Affairs Committee and also serves on the Judiciary Committee. He holds weekly office hours on Sundays from 1-3 p.m. at his home, 176 Cottage St. in Sanford.
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