Our western gambit

"Normally, when a CR is being worked on, it is reported in the news. Not this week. Too much other stuff going on."

Our long awaited vacation to visit both the badlands has an element of risk attached to it. True, every time you travel anywhere there is risk, but this is a risk of a different nature. The government shutting down. And what if they do? Normally it is just a big shrug from most of us. HOWEVER, both the feds and the our state do the same thing in the event of a shutdown. They close down the parks. They want the people to feel the pain.

To say this would screw us up on this vacation is an understatement. Right before we left I called Congressman Emmer's office. Yes I was told, the House was going to be working on a continuing resolution (CR) on Tuesday (the clock runs out at midnight on Friday). Other than that, there has been no news.

Normally, when a CR is being worked on, it is reported in the news. Not this week. Too much other stuff going on. There is also some contentious items that need to be reconciled before it is in a condition that Obama would sign it. Any my feeling is he would be happy if the government would shut down for a short period of time. Why? The Republicans always seemed to get blamed.

There is some humor buried in with this story. My wife and I have been listening to all the news shows while in the car. When we checked into both hotels we have stayed at, we flipped between Fox, CNN and the regular stations. No news on the CR. No news on the shut down. 

Yesterday during our blizzard of extra driving, we could not take it anymore. Way, way too much news. So we switched on the 60's oldie station. About 10 minutes into listening, the DJ comes on and says he will not be taking his usual vacation this year. He is going to wait a few weeks. He went on to say it was too risky with the possibility of a government shutdown and then the parks being closed. After hours and hours of listening to the news channels and getting nothing, we get some news about a shut down from an oldies station!

Anyhow, if the parks are shut down on Saturday, we have a Plan "B". We will have already been to Teddy Roosevelt Park in North Dakota and Devil's Tower. We would miss the South Dakota national parks. But there are a ton of state parks to visit. So that is what we would do to finish up our trip.

One word about some serious politics before I close. Many, probably most of us, have zero tolerance for Congress not getting their work done on time. There is no reason why we do not have a 2017 budget agreed to and signed into law by now. We are sick and tired of CRs and the omnibus bills which always seem to follow. Very, very sick and tired.