OPINION:
With the dispute over funding for the Department of Homeland Security at an impasse, rhetoric from both Republicans and Democrats is flying higher and hotter by the day. One intriguing point of contention is that 200,000 of the 230,000 of DHS employees are deemed “essential” and therefore exempt from furlough. That’s an incredible 87 percent.
Why does this remind me of driving by an eight-person road crew and seeing one man working a backhoe, four men leaning on their shovels staring into the hole being dug, one man sitting in a truck on a cellphone, another man leaning on the door of the truck listening in, and one man holding a Stop sign? Yep, essential personnel. Or maybe a union requisite?
RANDALL STEPHENS
Falls Church
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