Chronic Dysfunction

   Dysfunction can take many forms. We all suffer times when it strikes, but for most of us, the malady is temporary.
   In Congress, however, the malady has become chronic, if not acute. For health care professionals, the difference is this: chronic means the problem is there all the time, and acute means systems could begin to shut down and the malady may become life-threatening.
   When chronic dysfunction in Congress becomes acute, the government faces a fiscal shutdown. The issue then becomes whether and how a federal government shutdown affects state and local governments, industry and the general public.
   Clearly, the shutdown of any major employer -- business or government -- rattles through a regional or national economy, causing lost jobs, lost wages, reduced spending, less tax revenue, a cutback in government's ability to supply services and a need to further reduce its payroll, causing more lost jobs, and the cycle accelerates.
   Further, as federal aid to state and local authorities goes down, these entities also look to higher taxes and fewer expenses to close their budget gaps, since they cannot operate at a deficit, and the snowball becomes an avalanche.


   You can't stop an avalanche, but you can act to prevent one.

   Note to hardline fundamentalists: Stop throwing snowballs.