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Despite previous warnings about a government meltdown if you-know-who wins the November election, Uncle Sam keeps on keeping on regardless of who’s in the White House and which political party controls the House and Senate. You-know-who’s identity depends on your politics and perception, not necessarily on your psychic powers or past track record in picking winners.
How many of us predicted that Donald Trump would ultimately get the most votes, or that Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.) would give the former Secretary of State such a run for her money?
Most of the so-called experts were dead wrong. Including every candidate who opposed Trump. Except candidate Trump.
Much of the media has switched to telling us — the voters — how stupid we were, and will continue to be if the wrong person wins in November. The usual suspects of celebrities have (some for the second or third time) announced they will leave United States if the voters get it wrong. In their opinion.
Like the long-predicted federal government retirement tsunami (the first alarms went off in the late 90s) life has gone on. The government has a hard time getting new blood in part because feds who were supposed to be wearing spandex on shuffle-board courts are still coming to work. The EPA remains up and running. The Defense Department is still a very big operation. The IRS, while bloodied and beaten (which some applaud and others decry), is still with us.
Most federal and postal unions, as usual, backed one of the Democratic candidates. But one, AFGE’s National Border Patrol Council, representing 18,000 of the union’s frontline members, gave its official stamp of approval to Trump, much to the consternation of the parent union’s top leadership.
In the heyday of newspapers (those wrinkly things your father reads) the motto was “if it bleeds, it leads,” meaning bad news is always more interesting than good news. While gloom-and-doom sells, and prevails, in the runup to any national election, past predictions of disaster have, as Mark Twain said while reading his obituary, nearly always been wrong in size and scope.
So should feds be more concerned about their future than people don’t work for the government? Or those who are retired, or maybe in grade or high school? What do you think?
Are you planning to exit the U.S. of A., or expecting to lose your job if the wrong person wins? If so, let us know your plans.
Halley’s Comet was visible in the sky both on the night that Mark Twain was born and on the night he passed away.
Source: The Official Website of Mark Twain
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Mike Causey is senior correspondent for Federal News Network and writes his daily Federal Report column on federal employees’ pay, benefits and retirement.
Follow @mcauseyWFED