Voices of the shutdown: "That's such a deep character flaw when you hate like that"
Jon Scott wants to paint your home or clean your windows -- jobs he hasn't done in a while.
"When I was a college student I used to do that and I'm still pretty agile, so that's one thing we could do," said Scott.
Scott hasn't worked Sept. 27 because of the government shutdown.
The father of six, Scott works for the Federal Emergency Management Agency in Kansas City, Mo., and is the sole source of income for his family.
Ten days into the shutdown, he's not only concerned about the welfare of his family, but also about the people he's supposed to help through his work.
"If there's a disaster, it's going to have a huge impact, because we've stopped our planning meetings, there's no coordination. Two of our (federallyrecognized Native American) tribes were hit by tornadoes just last week and I was told that I was not able to call them," said Scott.
"Luckily, the impact was not too great but if it had been I guess we would have been recalled. Even so, they lost 17 homes, we can't coordinate with them," said Scott.
"I was ordered that if they called me directly, tell them that I can't talk," he added.
Scott has had to arrange deferments for his mortgage and car payments in order to have more cash to feed his family.
"We received another email, it's a notice that we can provide our creditors, our mortgage company, the companies that we have our auto loans with. Hopefully they'll be able to defer some payments if this thing drags out," said Scott.
"I'm going to have to get out there and raise some money somehow if it goes on for too long," he said.
Scott has placed ads on Craigslist and in his church bulletin, although he hasn't received any responses yet.
"I'll go around door-to-door if I have to. You just have to do what you have to do, there's no shame in that," said Scott.
Although Scott said he believes he'll be receiving a paycheck this week, it will only be for approximately half of what he'd normally receive as he was furloughed in the middle of a pay period.
"Hopefully we'll be getting back pay, but the question is how do we get by until we get that paycheck," said Scott.
When asked about what he thinks of those responsible for the shutdown, Scott replied, "I just think it's a strange situation. I think they hate each other."
"And that really is the saddest thing, that's such a deep character flaw when you hate like that, and our leaders can't be people like that, you have to have a stronger character so you don't hate to that extent as they do," said Scott.
"It's kind of embarrassing," he added.
