In a laughably sad display of sophomoric behavior, President Trump, Vice President Pence, Senator Chuck Schumer, and Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi met in the White House earlier this week to play politics in front of the press. In a flurry of interruptions and one-upman/womanship, they managed to embarrass themselves and the nation. You can watch it (if you can stomach it) here.

The topic of conversation boiled down to President Trump threatening to shut down the government if he doesn’t get Democrats to pay for the wall he thinks the American people want. Speaker of the House Pelosi and President Trump sniped back and forth about funding the wall and owning the pending shutdown. Vice President Mike “Stuffed Doll” Pence watched intently but remained otherwise irrelevant, as is customary.

Regardless of what you think about our “leaders” or the wall, I always chuckle whenever I hear about the government threatening to shut down. The first thought that enters my mind after the chuckling dies down is how great it would be if the government would shut down and never start back up.

Every government shutdown is the result of petty partisan politicians playing brinkmanship. The shutdowns never really accomplish anything except granting unplanned vacations and deferring paychecks for federal employees for a few weeks.

One of the default conversations loudly heard in the midst of every shutdown is the notion the government will retain and continue to pay the “essential” government employees. In doing so, they say that “non-essential” federal employees will be furloughed throughout the shutdown.

My question is always, 1) aren’t 95% of the government employees essentially non-essential, and 2) if they are non-essential, why not do away with them permanently?

This time, let's work together on keeping as much of the shutdown as permanent as possible.

Call your Congressman and Senator to let them know what you think.