Furloughs for President's staff

Furloughs Alter Routines for President’s Staff

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/04/us/politics/furloughs-alter-routines-for-presidents-staff.html?ref=us&_r=0

Category of problem: Economy

Level of problem: National

This article is concerning an enacted policy that has been passed to help individual/families with a problem/issue.

This is important to individuals/families because those who work for the government are furloughed without pay so their families may struggle. After time, it will negatively affect most of the U.S. in some way.

My views on this issue/policy: I do feel bad for the White House workers that were furloughed, especially the ones who actually had an important job and worked hard. But as I was reading the article I noticed that some of the complaints of jobs let go were of kitchen staff and other care-takers of the house. “No more soup of the day”, because the meals are now limited and the trash only gets taken out once a day and not twice. I would like to know how necessary it is in the first place to need trash taken out several times a day and why that’s not a part of housekeeping duties. To me, these are not problems. Soup of the day and restricted trash service of the West Wing should be the least of the White House worries. Every job is important but when the government is furloughing 800,000 people yet congress and the President still get paid, something isn’t right. Government citizens are sitting at home wondering when their next paycheck is going to come because they have bills due. Not only that, but it took them until hours before the shutdown to even allow active military to continue getting paid. That shouldn’t have even been a question to begin with. They also furloughed all Junior Staff Members which according to the article are the ones who knew how to run everything. The Special Assistant to the President did not even know how to clear someone through security gates until Monday night because his assistant always did it. He’s never set up a conference call either. I think government priorities are vastly different from the citizens in turn leads to a huge problem if the shutdown continues.