Entry #7 - October 6th 2013

U.S. government shutdown: Security services stretched thin

CBC News

Recently, on Wednesday, US intelligence officials said "the government shutdown is seriously damaging the intelligence community's ability to guard against threats". They have kept counter terrorism staff at work as well as staff sending information to troops in Afghanistan.  The US Intelligence officials think that the threat will increase daily with fewer spies to track targets.  The director of National intelligence, James R. Clapper, told the US Congress last Wednesday that around 70% of employees have been furloughed.  It does not look like the shutdown will end.  When Clapper was asked to quantify the damage done by the shutdown he said "the risk is 75% higher than it was yesterday, the danger here will accumulate over time. The damage will be insidious, so each day that goes by, the jeopardy increases."

I think that the US intelligence officials are right saying the government shutdown is seriously damaging the community's ability to guard against threats.  I agree with them as this could be a very disabling thing.  Many people are out of work because of this situation.  I think that the government should try and resolve this problem quickly because there are a lot of people in need of jobs.  This will only increase the debt load in the United States even more because of the people that are out of work.