Many Morongo Basin residents are dependent on paychecks from the federal government. Having weathered reduced paychecks from the earlier sequestration, the current government shutdown leaves them with no paychecks at all. Dan Stork spoke with some of them near the San Bernardino County public assistance office in Twentynine Palms yesterday…
In the wake of the shutdown of much of the Federal government, local federal employees headed over to the county services office in Twentynine Palms to apply for public assistance, such as food stamps. Many of them also gathered on the corner of Adobe and Sun Valley, near the county office, with hand-lettered signs to publicize their unhappiness. As passing motorists honked and waved in support, we spoke with them:
“How are you hoping people will respond?”
“I think they all see it the way it is–Congress is not doing their job, and we’re paying the price.”
“So what would you urge your fellow citizens to do?”
“Call the congressman, Congressman Paul Cook, we have the phone number…”
“OK, and it’s 202-225-5861.”
“And tell him how you feel!”
Other sign-holders pitched in, “We just want to know why Congress gets paid for not doing their job–we’d be fired–and we don’t get paid for trying to do ours”.
