I was in government during the big sequestration in 2013. The days leading up to it were bad to say the least. Managers had to determine which of their people were "mission essential." Hold up - we have non-mission essential people in a national security mission?! Dumbness. 1/n

This posturing by Congress has a very real impact. Even if they reach a last minute deal, these funding debates have made America weaker. Instead of performing mission, managers are trying to prioritize which missions will still get done during a gov shutdown. 2/n

Then there are folks tying up loose ends on missions that won't get done during the shutdown. If you think this doesn't hurt our intelligence capabilities, think again. We are far past the point of "no harm" in this potential shutdown. America is already weaker. 3/n

And the "mission essential" people that are forced to come into work don't know when or if they're being paid. As a practical matter they've always been paid when gov resumes operations, but there's no guarantee, so this weighs on their minds obviously. 4/n

And you know who you don't want driving your offensive cyber missions? Someone who is pissed off because they don't know if they're ever going to be paid for the work they're doing. Oh, also most of their support staff is gone so the job sucks even worse. 5/n

So go ahead Congress, keep posturing. Don't worry - someone will always perform the mission - but you're losing some of your best and brightest with these shenanigans. 6/6