{"id":1096371,"date":"2019-01-26T20:06:08","date_gmt":"2019-01-26T20:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kereport.com\/?p=50387"},"modified":"2019-01-26T20:06:08","modified_gmt":"2019-01-26T20:06:08","slug":"ker-politics-sat-26-jan-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1096371","title":{"rendered":"KER Politics &#8211; Sat 26 Jan, 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The &#8220;Something for Nothing&#8221; Crowd should actually be correctly called The Democratic Party<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"http:\/\/www.kereport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Saturday-January-26-Editorial-re-Federal-govt-shutdown.mp3\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n<table class=\"wp-block-table\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.kereport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Al-B-Korelin-2.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-50390\" width=\"137\" height=\"137\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.kereport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Al-B-Korelin-2.png 300w, http:\/\/www.kereport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Al-B-Korelin-2-150x150.png 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 137px) 100vw, 137px\" \/><\/figure>\n<p><strong>I don\u2019t feel sorry for<br \/>\nidle federal workers<\/strong><strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>BY RUBEN NAVARRETTE JR. Washington Post Writers Group<\/em><\/p>\n<p>No&nbsp;<em>mas<\/em>!<br \/>\nI can\u2019t take any more sob stories about government workers going without<br \/>\npaychecks during a shutdown that just passed the 30-day mark.<\/p>\n<p>The<br \/>\npreferred media spin is that 800,000 federal workers are held hostage by<br \/>\npolitical gridlock. Wrong.<\/p>\n<p>These<br \/>\npeople are not hostages. They\u2019re volunteers. No one forced them to work for the<br \/>\nfederal government. My problem isn\u2019t with the workers. It\u2019s with the false<br \/>\nnarrative.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt<br \/>\nlooks like a breadline out of the Depression, people standing out waiting in<br \/>\nthe cold to get their soup or sandwich,\u201d said Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va.<\/p>\n<p>Really?<br \/>\nIn the Great Depression, the nation\u2019s unemployment rate hit an all-time high in<br \/>\n1933 \u2014 24.9 percent. Today, it\u2019s 3.9 percent.<\/p>\n<p>You\u2019re<br \/>\nright, Senator. It\u2019s the same thing. News footage showed a protester marching<br \/>\nin front of a building in Manhattan holding a sign, stamped with a union label,<br \/>\nthat read: \u201cWe want to work!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I<br \/>\nthought: Then why aren\u2019t you? If you did more of what some of your colleagues<br \/>\nare doing \u2014 substitute teaching, driving for Uber, doing temp jobs, etc. \u2014 and<br \/>\nless marching, you\u2019d be better off.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m<br \/>\n51, and I\u2019ve been working since I was 13. My grandmother owned a clothing<br \/>\nstore, and I pitched in on Sunday mornings. I also worked as a busboy and took<br \/>\norders in a restaurant owned by a family friend before I was old enough to get<br \/>\na driver\u2019s permit. During my college years, I stacked 40-pound boxes of fruit<br \/>\nin a packing house and later worked for a federal judge \u2013 and had about a dozen<br \/>\njobs in between.<\/p>\n<p>Where<br \/>\nI grew up near Fresno, work is sacred. My Mexican-born grandfather picked<br \/>\nfruit, and showed up to the fields a half-hour early \u2014 out of gratitude for a<br \/>\njob. People there have two or three jobs. Decades before anyone talked about a<br \/>\n\u201cside hustle,\u201d the folks I grew up with lined up extra work on nights and<br \/>\nweekends \u2014 just to make ends meet.<\/p>\n<p>The<br \/>\nconcept of work isn\u2019t as complicated as some people make it. With unemployment<br \/>\nat a historic low, there\u2019s a job for all who want one. Unless you think some<br \/>\njobs are beneath you. Maybe you think your time is especially valuable, like<br \/>\nthe handyman who, several years ago, wanted to charge me $75 per hour to stain<br \/>\na fence.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps<br \/>\nyou agree with FBI Agents Association President Tom O\u2019Connor, who said: \u201cFBI<br \/>\nagents should not have to go work at the store stacking shelves because they<br \/>\ncan\u2019t feed their families on their government job.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Oh,<br \/>\nbecause FBI agents are special? I assume O\u2019Connor hasn\u2019t followed the news over<br \/>\nthe last two years. The bureau has so many self-inflicted wounds it could apply<br \/>\nfor medical leave.<\/p>\n<p>Even<br \/>\nso, a lot of people would still like to work for the federal government. The<br \/>\nbenefits are great. The hours are decent. And the job security is enviable.<br \/>\nThat\u2019s largely why these jobs are sought after and hard to get, like membership<br \/>\nin an exclusive club.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s<br \/>\na good bet that furloughed government workers will be back on the job soon \u2014<br \/>\nwith back pay for the days they missed.<\/p>\n<p>Does<br \/>\nyour private-sector job work that way? Mine don\u2019t. I use the plural because I<br \/>\nhave five.<\/p>\n<p>You<br \/>\nthink I lack empathy. Guilty. But I\u2019m not alone.<\/p>\n<p>Besides,<br \/>\nI don\u2019t recall government workers being terribly empathetic to those in the<br \/>\nprivate sector 10 years ago when the housing bubble burst. Millions of us lost<br \/>\njobs, homes, health benefits, retirement funds and more.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s<br \/>\nmy tribe \u2014 folks in the private sector. Let me tell you about them.<\/p>\n<p>I<br \/>\nknow a doctor who lost her home, an engineer who left the country and his<br \/>\nfamily to find a better-paying job, a dairy farmer who lost his land to back<br \/>\ntaxes, a marketing executive who cashed out his 401(k) after being laid off, a<br \/>\nprivate-school teacher who goes without health insurance, and too many<br \/>\nout-of-work journalists to count. They all live paycheck to paycheck.<\/p>\n<p>So<br \/>\nit\u2019s hard to feel sorry for furloughed workers who have jobs to go back to and<br \/>\nback-pay to collect \u2014 and a comfortable pension in retirement.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re<br \/>\ntold that many of these federal workers have had to tap into their savings. I<br \/>\nspeak for many in my tribe of private-sector workers when I ask: \u201cWhat are<br \/>\nsavings?\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Email:&nbsp;ruben@&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/rubennavarrette.com\/\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">rubennavarrette.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p>THESE<br \/>\nPEOPLE ARE NOT HOSTAGES. THEY\u2019RE VOLUNTEERS. NO ONE FORCED THEM TO WORK FOR THE<br \/>\nFEDERAL GOVERNMENT. MY PROBLEM ISN\u2019T WITH THE WORKERS. IT\u2019S WITH THE FALSE<br \/>\nNARRATIVE.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The &ldquo;Something for Nothing&rdquo; Crowd should actually be correctly called The Democratic Party<br \/>I don&rsquo;t feel sorry for idle federal workers BY RUBEN NAVARRETTE JR. Washington Post Writers Group No&nbsp;mas! I can&rsquo;t take&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[571,362],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1096371"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1096371"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1096371\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1096372,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1096371\/revisions\/1096372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1096371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1096371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1096371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}