As recently as three weeks ago, cockeyed optimists were planning what they would do with the bonus post-Christmas holiday they were certain President Barack Obama would bestow on them. His pardon of two Thanksgiving turkeys — Mac and Cheese from Ohio — was a sign to hopefuls that Friday Dec. 26 would be declared a bonus holiday for nonemergency feds.

Hundreds of thousands of civil servants put their faith in social networking and signed an online petition saying they wanted Friday off. To which many others said, duh!

That so many signed up for an extra day off surprised no one. Except some colleagues who commented that the whole thing was silly and gave government workers an even poorer image with the public. Fast forward to, well, now …

The bonus holiday is still as much of an option as it ever was. But for some it has been replaced by the possibility that Ebenezer “Bah humbug!’ Scrooge, in the form of Congress and the White House, might force a government shutdown before Christmas. The government runs out of authority to spend on Dec. 11 unless Congress and the White House come up with a stopgap spending extension — called a Continuing Resolution — to keep things (like your paycheck) going until the next deadline.

There was a government shutdown in October 2013 (not to be confused with the earlier furloughs) although, ironically, workers got paid for it. Congress, the White House, Republicans and Democrats played chicken, and shut down the government costing, rather than saving, money. None of the elected officials who OK’d the furloughs or caused the shutdown were impacted by it. The rationale was that they had to stay on the payroll so they could solve the problem they caused. It made sense at the time — at least to them!

Now we are in a situation where a bonus holiday and a government shutdown are both theoretically possible. The White House will decide the bonus holiday, the lame duck Congress (with a near record number of losers) will determine whether there is a shutdown. Or move the new effective date into early January.

Long-suffering feds, who have been through similar situations before, are forging ahead, doing their jobs and not losing any sleep over either a bonus holiday or a no-pay blackout before the biggest spending time of the year.

Meantime, what’s in your stocking?

What does your crystal ball tell you?

NEARLY USELESS FACTOID:

By Michael O’Connell

It took Italian artist Michelangelo approximately four years to finish painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

Source: Wikipedia

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