Shutdown hurts job creators

I am a small business owner with a firm that employs close to 60 people, and we provide management consulting services to the military and other government clients. When politicians refer to “job creators,” they are talking about our firm and thousands like us. We hire a whole lot of military spouses and veterans, who get a lot of lip service from both parties about the support that the American public needs to give those who have sacrificed so much. However, we don’t give lip service, or charity. We hire these veterans, reservists and Guardsmen, and their partners, and we do so because they make great employees.

{mosads}As a government contractor, right now, we’re drawing up contingency plans for operations during a government shutdown. We’re trying to figure out if and how our staff can continue to support the government while this silly drama plays out. We’re going to fund our operations with our working capital because, even if we can continue to perform, we won’t be paid until much later. We are obligated to continue to pay our employees on time for work they’ve performed, but the government isn’t under any such obligation to pay us on time for work performed when they are shut down because of political games.

And while my company will certainly be hurt by this silly posturing, there are people and groups who will be hurt much more critically. In the last shutdown, a private charity– Fisher House– had to make military survivor payments for families of those in the military who were killed during the shutdown. That is unconscionable.

I don’t believe there’s a single rational person in the political class who thinks that these stunts will actually lead to the de-funding of Planned Parenthood. Despite the rhetoric, it is not even clear that this de-funding is the actual intent of the political figures driving this potential shutdown. If a shutdown occurs, it will be the result of a small number of members of Congress putting their own personal ambitions over the good of this country. Supporters and opponents of Planned Parenthood should both be appalled by the politics of blackmail that could lead to a shutdown and have innumerable victims.

I started this company as another way to serve this country that I love, and I make decisions every day that are in the best interests of the country over the best interests of the company bottom line. I just wish our politicians would do the same.

Weiner is chief executive officer of Wittenberg Weiner Consulting, LLC.