Not quite a shutdown

Sandy Hook, the Monmouth County arm of the Gateway National Recreation Area, is closed to the public as a result of the Federal Government shutdown.

But vehicles were driving in and out of the park when I drove by this afternoon.

Ranger Tim Quinn said the Marine Academy of Science and Technology is open as are “the cooperators,” the non-profit organizations that have their offices in the park.  The Coast Guard Station is also open.

Quinn said all others are prohibited from entering the park, by car bicycle or foot. He said several members of the park staff were sent home after working four hours today and referred me to the press office for the answers to any other questions.  I guess the press office is working.

In addition to Quinn, there were five rangers gathered in toll house at the entrance to the park.  Asked if he was getting paid, Quinn laughed and said, “I’m not volunteering for the government.

The Jersey Tomato Press reports that 800,000 “non-essential” government employees are out of work. Passport offices and the Federal Housing Administration are closed.  No mortgages or last minute overseas trips.  No SBA loans or background checks for gun licenses either.  The trash isn’t being picked up in Washington, DC, but lots of garbage is being reported in the media.

While President Obama and Senate Democrats are blaming House Republicans for shutting down the government, the House is taking up measures to fund the National Parks, veterans affairs and Washington, DC government operations.   Senate Democrats, budget chairwoman Barbara Mikuski and Majority Whip Dick Durbin rejected the piecemeal approach to reopening the government, according to Politico.

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Christie: Government Shut Down Is A Failure

Transcript:

Governor Christie: You know when you’re in the silly season like we’re in now – everybody running around and campaigning for different things – when we see the craziness we’re seeing down in Washington DC today where people who say that they want to be in public life to try to run the government and then their solution to doing that is to not speak to each other, not work with each other, and shut our government down, that’s a failure. That’s a failure of people in public life for everyone in this country who’s depending upon a government that will get its stuff together. And notice, since I’m only 35 days away from an election, I said stuff and not something else which I know you all figure I would be more apt to say. But we’re 35 days away from an election so I’m trying to clean up my act a little bit. You know, we need to make sure that we have a government that listens to the needs of the people who pay for it. You know it’s not the other way around. We’re not supposed to be dictating to you, we’re supposed to be listening, and I think much too much in politics these days we have folks who have forgotten that one of the most important parts of leadership is listening. Listening to people of divergent views and opinions. Listening to the folks who pay the bills. Listening to the people who are going to lead our state and our country in the future. And so, we’re going to do a lot more listening around here and a lot less talking. And I hope in Washington what they figure out is that what we pay them to do when we send them down there is to run the government, not to shut it down.

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