What is one supposed to expect from Washington nowadays
other than a Kafkaesque response to communication? Of the several emails I recently sent
concerning the government shutdown and the debt crisis, my favorite exchange
was with U.S. Senator Marco Rubio's office. Here's mine which I tried to keep
brief and to the point:
To use the shutdown of
the government and, far worse, the possible default on our debt as a hostage
for repealing a law that has already been passed, adjudicated, is the worst
kind of governing I can imagine and I blame this on the Republican Party,
particularly the fringe elements, a Party I used to admire. This kind of
brinksmanship reminds me of the Cuban Missile crisis, but being played out with
the full faith and credit of our country as the A bomb (I lived in NYC then and
remember the anxiety clearly). Why not
deal with the weaknesses of the Affordable Care Act (which is the proper name,
not Obamacare) when they become evident during its implication? It makes me
furious at my representatives and apprehensive for this country
One minute later, I got the following response:
Thank you for taking
the time to contact me, please be advised due to the government shutdown, my
office is currently closed. My office will respond to your concerns or resume
work on your case as soon as the office reopens. In the interim, if you would
like to leave a comment for me, you may still do so at 1-866-630-7106 (within
Florida) or 202-224-3041.
Sincerely,
U.S. Senator Marco
Rubio
Thus, I first called the Florida number, and it was
busy. So I called the Washington number
and got one of those happy, professional recordings, one option was to leave a
message concerning any legislative matters.
So, that is the option I chose.
Then, even a more friendly voice responded, I'm
sorry, that mailbox is full. Goodbye.
The end. ∞
PS When I wrote this entry, I had no idea that practically
concurrently President Obama was calling the failure to raise the debt ceiling
an economic "nuclear bomb." Amen
to that.
