Well, we still don’t have a FY2018 budget. The government will shut down unless a continuing resolution is passed. I know for a lot of us, that’s pretty much a feature, not a bug, but just think about all those sensitive positions that are responsible for the nation’s security going unfunded, and all those intelligence officers and law enforcement personnel staying home, because the government can’t afford to pay them! Just think about those whom their supervisors consider “essential personnel” having to come to work and pick up slack for the 90 percent of their colleagues who aren’t around!

Fiscal 2017 will end in a little over three weeks.

The debt ceiling debate is ongoing; and let me give those of you who are all boasty about the national debt dropping by more than $12 billion in Trump’s first few months in office a clue: it’s a ridiculous statistic that’s not even remotely significant in the larger scheme of the national debt debate. To quote Dan Mitchell of the CATO Institute – an actual, you know, economist, “Debt levels go up and down in the short run based on independent factors such as quarterly tax payments and predetermined expenditure patterns.” We’re currently in a situation again where the government is insisting on raising the debt ceiling, and I’m thinking that’s a decision that’s pretty important.