Ellen Holloway knows the federal government's partial shutdown has created victims with bigger problems. Still, she, her husband and kids would sure like their family dog back.
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| Hope Holloway, with Eiffel |
Ellen and her husband, Allen, moved their family from Charlotte to England last month as Allen pursues a master's degree at the University of Reading. It was a big move for their 8-year-old daughter, Hope, and 7-year-old son, Connor, and leaving the family dog behind was never an option. Eiffel, a 3-year-old English Springer Spaniel, is a member of the family, and like a sibling to Hope and Connor. She would be a great comfort for the children amid such tremendous change.
It turns out that shipping a dog to the United Kingdom requires following a very specific process over a 10-day period. The vet has to see her exactly nine days before the flight. Then a vet with the U.S. Department of Agriculture has to sign the paperwork and send it back to the family's vet. She has to arrive in England within 10 days of seeing the vet and after being given a de-wormer three days before.
The Holloways researched all that and followed the rules to a T. "Eiffel's paperwork was literally the next on the desk to be signed when the shutdown began," Ellen says by email from Reading. Eiffel's trip was cancelled the day before she was to fly.
"Telling the kids, who had been counting down the days from 14 to 1, wasn't easy," Ellen says. "We can't even restart the count -- we don't know how long it will be. They cried and can't understand why this is happening ... or when she'll finally arrive."
So now the kids come home to their strange new house in a foreign country, and Eiffel is not there to greet them. All because Congress can't get its act together.
"The only silver lining?" Ellen says. "I now have a sure-fire method to end bickering among the Holloway siblings: remind them that they are doing exactly the same as 'the politicians' and the bickering quickly subsides. Even school children don't want to be caught acting like that!"
Hope and Connor made a video asking Congress and President Obama to please end the shutdown so they could have their beloved Eiffel back. Watch it below.
-- Taylor Batten (h/t to Peter St. Onge)
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4 comments:
Here's a better idea: REPEAL THESE IDIOTIC LAWS AND REGULATIONS!
Taylor,
Since Queen Fannie seems content to remain in her ivory tower, perhaps you can respond to and correct these errors in the "rich and crazy in Congress" column.
Here are my original posts in RaCiC:
You really need to stop this lie about "defaulting on debt". The definition of "debt default" is the failure to keep current with scheduled principal and interest payments.
The government is taking in record revenue ($2.48 trillion for the trailing twelve months ending August 2013). This is more than enough to cover principal and interest payments on the national debt.
Will some programs need to be cut? Absolutely, because any additional deficit spending results in a higher national debt figure, which means that more money would be needed to keep those P&I payments current.
Furthermore, current deficits are being financed solely by the printing of money by the Federal Reserve ($85 billion a month), which is producing inflation evident at the gas pump and the grocery store. Particularly hard-hit by inflation are senior citizens on fixed incomes and low-to-middle class workers struggling to make ends meet.
Meanwhile, the money the Fed prints goes not directly to the government but is first laundered through the network of Primary Dealers - investment banks like JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs, who buy Treasury debt instruments only to flip them (at a profit and with a sales commission) to the Fed. Why do you favor millions in profits for Wall Street but a lower standard of living for the elderly and the poor?
Fannie, I know you never respond to comments here but I think you need to make an exception here to acknowledge your error on "debt default" and that you understand my explanation of how deficit spending is being financed at the expense of our most vulnerable citizens.
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It looks like Moody's Rating Service agrees with me that you and the Washington establishment (i.e. leaders in both parties) are wrong to use the word "default":
In a memo dated Oct. 7, Moody’s said: “We believe the government would continue to pay interest and principal on its debt even in the event that the debt limit is not raised, leaving its creditworthiness intact. The debt limit restricts government expenditures to the amount of its incoming revenues; it does not prohibit the government from servicing its debt. There is no direct connection between the debt limit (actually the exhaustion of the Treasury’s extraordinary measures to raise funds) and a default.”
Why does a dog wag its tail? Because the dog is smarter than the tail. If the tail were smarter, it would wag the dog.
Barrack Obama's solution to this problem: eat the dog.
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