“I told the president, it’s like Christmas every morning,” Gov. Mike Dunleavy said at last week’s staged event in Washington, D.C., where the Department of Interior secretary signed off on federal approvals to expand oil drilling, mining and road building in Alaska.
“I wake up, I go to look at what’s under the proverbial Christmas tree to see what’s happening. And here’s another example of more presents for not just Alaska, but for this country,” the governor said.
I suppose that might be true if Christmas were only about resource development rather than people. Not to deny the monumental importance of resource development and jobs to the Alaska economy — always has been, always will be — but it just feels wrong to equate political gifts with goodwill, peace and generosity of the holiday season.
I’m Jewish, and even I know the true spirit of Christmas is about giving, not receiving.
The only thing missing from the stack of land-use and natural resource presents the Interior Department wrapped in gold foil under the tree last week was a lump of coal. I guess maybe that’s because those are in short supply these days.
Probably most of the U.S. strategic reserve of lumps of coal already has been handed out to the 1.4 million federal employees who are either furloughed or required to work without pay because congressional Republicans are doing their best imitation of Scrooge, while the Democrats cook their own political goose and the president tops it all off by shouting “Bah Humbug” over the noise of heavy equipment tearing down the East Wing of the White House.
More lumps of coal have been set aside for the millions of Americans who will lose their health insurance coverage next year or will pay collectively billions of dollars more if they can even afford to maintain their policies after federal tax credits expire. Finding a political compromise to those tax credits — the holdup that has shut down much of the federal government — is proving as difficult as getting dried cranberry sauce out of a white holiday shirt.
And the last few lumps of coal in the government stockpile are destined for the 42 million Americans — including more than 66,000 Alaskans — who will lose their food stamp benefits in November. That is, unless Congress and the president can find a way to stand under the mistletoe, put politics aside, put people first and do their jobs to reopen the government.
They don’t have to kiss; just shaking hands would be enough.
Maybe there are a few crumbs of those lumps of coal that can be swept up for people who can’t get help from the IRS because half the staff is on furlough, and for businesses that have contracts to work for federal agencies but are waiting to see if they still have a job and when they will be paid.
Every day may feel like Christmas to Alaska’s governor, but it’s not looking like a merry holiday season for tens of millions of people, and no amount of possible, potential, maybe future resource projects will change that.
With the government shutdown in its fifth week, the White House is finding money to pay for the programs and private developments that it likes, while telling everyone else to stand in line at a food bank.
Too bad those presents from the Interior Department weren’t edible.
Larry Persily is a longtime Alaska journalist, with breaks for federal, state and municipal public policy work in Alaska and Washington, D.C. He lives in Anchorage and is publisher of the Wrangell Sentinel weekly newspaper.
