There is one overwhelming fact that argues against the possibilities that the executive and legislative branches of the state of Alaska will not find a way out of their current Gordian knot budget imbroglio/debacle and its looming shutdown.
That biggest fact that will probably avert a July 1 Juneau “closed” sign is that such a shutdown just might give the people, citizens, and — especially — the taxpayers of Alaska (and America) a very prescient clue and view as to exactly which activities and actions by the government of the state of Alaska are really, essentially necessary (and sufficient) to satisfy the state’s constitutionally-mandated purpose, function and operation of that government.
In other words, a shutdown on July 1 just might expose — for all to see — just which activities and actions by which state agencies really are (and are not) all that critical (or significant, important, nominal, or relatively or even absolutely useless, as the spectrum unfolds) to satisfying what that government is actually, really supposed to be doing, as detailed in and by its constitution.
When, suddenly, all those state government goods, products and services are no longer available, who is going to miss them? And then, how — if that government stays shut down because of, well, politics and looming re-elections and other such more sophisticatedly arcane such matters — how are all those goods, products and services going to be replaced? And by whom? And when they are replaced, what will that show about why the government was providing them in the first place? Or how well?
Chances are that Juneau’s politicians, bureaucrats, political appointees and lobbyists (to say nothing of all their owners and operators scattered from the Arctic to the Aleutians to the Southeast archipelago to say even less of Anchorage, Seattle, Washington, D.C. and beyond, even unto Wall Street) chances are pretty good that all of those folks would much rather prefer to not see that happen, to not see the people of Alaska seeing — up close and personally — just what it is, exactly, that the government of the state of Alaska is supposed to be doing, what it actually does, and who exactly benefits from (and, on the other hand, pays for) what it does, doesn’t do, and, particularly, what it doesn’t do well.
In other words: Alaska’s political class will most likely not let a shutdown happen if for no other reason than that to do so would expose its irrelevance to the place and the people that are Alaska. To fail to do so would also serve as a dangerous precedent, should our whole nation’s political class not efficiently, effectively, and efficaciously resolve the matter of this nation’s sovereign debt limit before it goes off on summer vacation break in August.
If — all of a sudden — this nation’s federal government ceased to function, what would happen? Would Juneau survive? Would Alaska prevail? Would America abide?
• JG Moebus is a 70-year-old retired U.S. Army Master Sergeant with 28 years of service, including two years in Vietnam in the ‘60s and two years in the pre-9/11 Middle East in the ‘80s. He now lives in Sitka on the sailboat he brought up from San Francisco Bay five years ago.
