Oped: Why A Government Shut Down Means Nothing For Portsmouth, NH

Andy Raynor GAA, Portsmouth NH

Consider this, we know a few things about our government:

- Politicians love themselves

- Politicians love collecting taxes

Lets just suspend everything else for the moment and focus on those two items. In spite of what the media at large has to say about it, we know these two observations to be true - Government politicians are egotistical and the government wants to collect revenue.

Lets throw just one more observation in the mix - most Americans do not benefit from federal funding. So even if there is a so called"shut down" it will be for non-essential staff. So then what are we to make of this so called shutdown - absolutely nothing in my opinion. The state of NH will continue to operate, state employees will continue to get paid and all is fine.

It is strange however that in recent history there have been threats (or even actual) shut downs. For one we run an unsustainable model of debt which does certainly warrant a shut down. With all of the various layers of government already in place, why do we even need the federal government. With an aging and out of date military and antiquated governance... what point is there really? NH is a model of sustainable budgeting with a recent surplus and good economic climate, we have police and other services that most of us use daily. Let the feds fail. For me, I wouldn't even notice. Andy Raynor GAA

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