Calling the indescribable circus underway in the nation’s Capitol a “shutdown” violates the purposes of the English language to adequately describe actions attributable to adults supposed to be leaders, all paid and more than adequately supported by taxpayers.

No, the real term for this week’s carnival of political clowning should be what it is: a 'putdown'.  It’s a putdown of the hundreds of thousands of federal employees who believed they could trust their bosses and who stayed firmly committed to their jobs absent three or more years of any pay increases, staff reductions without reduced expectations for performance and many other insults few members of the public knew about.

It’s also a putdown of the very people who continue to pay the bills to keep nonproductive Members of Congress operating in their playpen called Capitol Hill with fingers pointed and commentary that would not pass a high school weekday lesson assignment.

It’s a putdown of the reputation of the U.S., the nation promoted as the shining example of democracy for others to seek and copy, the place to which millions struggled to come seeking only the chance to find a better life.

Much of what is at stake is the unfortunate use of the word “Obamacare” in place of the legislated Affordable Care Act terminology in order to confuse the American public.

Polls of ordinary citizens on the streets of the nation’s cities where people were asked whether they prefer “Obamacare” or the “Affordable Care Act” responded overwhelmingly to favor the latter which is precisely the same as the former.

I cannot stand as an analyst of the program itself, but it does not take a genius to watch propaganda at work to confuse people on such a critically important matter as health care.  If there is debate necessary about the ACA passed by this same Congress two years ago and approved with some moderation by the U.S. Supreme Court, then let’s have at it with the correct language.

But, instead, we have as well a putdown of the system itself on which more than 300 million Americans rely for these 535 legislators to follow and maintain without regard to political labels.

Does all this commentary overstate the critical nature of the moment? 

More than likely the term "putdown" is insufficient and violates the tenets of behavior most of us learned from our parents and our schools at much earlier ages.

When we might have conducted ourselves this way, good people would have urged as we should now loudly to those called “public servants” in Washington: for goodness sakes: GROW UP!