Polito's Take: It's only a 17 percent shutdown

(MyFoxBoston.com) -- Let's imagine that your paycheck will be cut by 17 percent this week. You will receive 83 cents for every dollar you are expected to earn. Think quickly. What would you cut from your expenses? Did you say the kids' prescriptions? The meals you bring to your elderly parents? How about the insurance on your property and the home security system? Of course not, that would cause unnecessary harm to your loved ones. You would cut back on going out to dinner, downgrade to basic cable, and maybe cancel the get-a-way weekend.

So why are veterans being kicked out of their memorials? Why are trials of potentially lifesaving drugs being stopped? How come money is being spent to barricade national parks when it would be cheaper to just keep them open? It's simple, they want to hurt you. If we have enough money to fund 83 percent of the government, why aren't we cutting the agencies and programs that would cause the least amount of pain? That's what you did when I proposed that your pay would be cut by 17 percent.

I'm sure by now you can see where I'm going with this. Thomas Jefferson warned us back in 1788 when he said, "The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield, and government to gain ground." Our current government is split in two and behaving like parents in the midst of a divorce who use their children as pawns against each other.

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