The Beef Inside the System, The Cost of Forgetting

How shutdown theater masks a structural tax on families, farmers, and small business

We’ve been through enough shutdowns to know the choreography. As newlyweds, our first paycheck disappeared because Yleem worked on Capitol Hill, and the staff weren’t being paid. That was the first lesson: Representatives and Senators kept getting paid; you didn’t.

Most staff still worked anyway. Back then, the law and culture were different, but the ta…