The government shutdown.....

[bae]

Can we start a list of how the government shutdown is directly affecting our own personal daily affairs? I’ll start.....

1.

Ok, I’m done.

There's a Federal grant program that helps fund fire departments, providing for gear purchases, training, and some amount of stipends for smaller departments.

My department relies upon it as part of our budgeting process.

The people responsible for processing the grant stuff are out-of-the-office due to the shutdown. So no grants, and our yearly budget now has to remove or delay some essential items. My SCBA, the breathing gear I use for structural firefighting and HAZMAT situations, is out-of-date and not compliant with current legal requirements, and was due to be replaced from this grant cycle.

So....

There's that.

The airport I help run relies on the FAA for 90% of its funding. We just blew our yearly budget cycle deadlines because, as usual, non-essential people in the FAA weren't there to sign boring paperwork on the right day, so several medium-sized projects will slip out a year. I'm pretty sure landing aircraft can dodge the potholes.

[JaneV2.0]

Just because one isn't immediately threatened by this shutdown doesn't mean millions of other aren't suffering.

[Williamsmith]

There's a Federal grant program that helps fund fire departments, providing for gear purchases, training, and some amount of stipends for smaller departments.

My department relies upon it as part of our budgeting process.

The people responsible for processing the grant stuff are out-of-the-office due to the shutdown. So no grants, and our yearly budget now has to remove or delay some essential items. My SCBA, the breathing gear I use for structural firefighting and HAZMAT situations, is out-of-date and not compliant with current legal requirements, and was due to be replaced from this grant cycle.

So....

There's that.

The airport I help run relies on the FAA for 90% of its funding. We just blew our yearly budget cycle deadlines because, as usual, non-essential people in the FAA weren't there to sign boring paperwork on the right day, so several medium-sized projects will slip out a year. I'm pretty sure landing aircraft can dodge the potholes.

Okay, but besides those trivial complaints......you’re doing well I take it? Just kidding....just kidding. I’ll start worrying when the Air Traffic Controllers stop coming to work. The potholes won’t matter then. The planes will just start falling out of the sky.

[Teacher Terry]

Exactly Jane and I care about them.

[CathyA]

This is just another example of Trump setting a fire and stepping back and getting high just watching everyone scramble. It makes him feel soooooo important.

[Williamsmith]

Just because one isn't immediately threatened by this shutdown doesn't mean millions of other aren't suffering.

It doesn’t mean there are millions of others suffering either. If we doubled the size of government does that mean we could eliminate more suffering?

[Williamsmith]

This is just another example of Trump setting a fire and stepping back and getting high just watching everyone scramble. It makes him feel soooooo important.

Its no surprise. It’s what he was elected to do. He just has a rather crude way of achieving he same thing Reagan did back in the day. Only Reagan could take your money and make you feel good about it.

[bae]

It doesn’t mean there are millions of others suffering either. If we doubled the size of government does that mean we could eliminate more suffering?

Well, as a result of not being willing to don the out-of-spec, out-of-date, past-end-of-life(*) breathing gear to run into burning buildings, I'm regrowing my nice beard, so there *is* less suffering in the morning from shaving. I suppose that's a good thing.

(*) We've been sourcing spare parts on Ebay for the past 3 years....

[Teacher Terry]

Bae, does that mean your rural community has no fire department now?

[bae]

Bae, does that mean your rural community has no fire department now?

We have a perfectly good fire department. But some operations we do are now a bit more dangerous, or not even possible if we follow the rules. Even if they don't go inside a building, there is a lot firefighters can do from outside.

That said, if there's a puppy inside a burning building, well, who is to say who broke the rules?