Final Word: Government shutdown is like divorcing parents

This government shutdown threat is even more tired than the last ones we have gone through.

While looking for an article online about it today, I searched “government shutdown” on Google and the suggestions included “government shutdown 2012,” “government shutdown 2011,” and so on.

Even Google is weary of the story.

It got me thinking about what happens when the two sides of an argument fail to see the damage they do to the actual issue; when they fail to agree and instead hack away at that which they are fighting over.

It’s like hiring two men to trim a shade tree. They disagree about how to shape it, but each one starts cutting. By the end of the workday, there is no tree left, but the trimmers still disagree about how much to cut, leaving the homeowner with a big bill and no shade.

Maybe a better comparison, though, is when parents divorce and they fight over custody or visitation or child support. The real issue is the right of both parents to see the child and the most important thing is that the child is well-taken care of, right?

That’s an easy call.

But when the two parents hate each other, that tends to take over and after awhile, the hatred seems more important than the well-being of the child.

The parents fight, they hire lawyers, spend too much on the fight and then there’s nothing left in the college fund. It’s a huge waste of money and we haven’t even addressed the emotional damage to the child.

Seems silly, doesn’t it?

Congress is no better.

Sen. John McCain is right.