Let's See .... The Guvmint Is Shutting Down ... Except For "Critical Services"

We are told that the looming "shutdown" will furlough hundreds of thousands of government workers EXCEPT those providing "critical services".  In other words...... the country will move along just fine with normal military forces protecting us, U.S. Post Office will deliver our mail as usual, food inspectors will still inspect, air traffic controllers will still control, food stamps will still be issued, school breakfast and lunch will still be picked over by our youth, TSA inspectors will still grope, passports will still be issued, Obamacare will continue to be pushed on us, Social Security checks will still be mailed out on schedule, Medicare will still pay the bills, along with many hundreds other functions which will keep operating.  This whole process raises two questions:

 

1) I wonder how many "critical" jobs there are to be found in the alphabet soup - the likes of EPA, BATF, DOE, HUD or DOEd? I hope "none" is close to the correct answer.

 

2) If we can get along without the Federal Guvmint providing these services for a few days weeks months, shouldn't we debate why we need to be paying for any of these NON-critical functions at all?  Perhaps they should be shut down permanently, turned over to local state or municipal control, or sold to private enterprise.

[clipper]