The Shutdown

The partial Government shutdown is now almost a month old. Much has been written about it and I thought I would add in my two cents worth. As hard as the GOP may be trying to blame the Democrats in Congress for the shutdown, in this case, they cannot accomplish this task. I guess they think that by taking to twitter and saying over and over and over again "Chuck & Nancy’s Shutdown", their base will begin to believe it.  A small problem, however confronts this effort. On December 11, 2018, at a meeting in the oval office, President Trump said, "I am proud to shutdown the government for border security" and went on to say that he was not going to blame Democrats for the shutdown. So now, how can the GOP or the MAGA nuts hope to convince anyone to the contrary?

In truth, prior to this shutdown, spending bills would routinely get passed at the eleventh hour with no time to spare or a continuing resolution would be passed to avert a catastrophic shutdown of our Federal government. If for some reason an agreement could not be reached by the deadlines, the government would shutdown temporarily until an agreement could be reached and usually the party who was suffering in the polls would blink first because in those instances, the reasons were complicated and clear responsibility was not immediately evident. This is not that case. The President is clearly responsible for this shutdown an no amount of "spin" can suggest otherwise.

President Trump's view of government is terribly simplistic and he cannot or does not realize the toll this shutdown is having on the 800,000 or so federal workers affected by the halt in government services. Many government workers do not make a lot of money and many live paycheck to paycheck. They did not inherit $4,000,000 from their fathers to start a business or else they would not work for the Federal Government. For them, there is no safety net and the longer this shutdown goes, the harder it will be for them to get back on top of their mortgage payments, their credit card bills, and their normal living expenses. None of the money these federal workers should have been paid in the past month is making its way into the economy causing ripple effects throughout the US in ways that are incalculable at this point.

A normal President would have blinked by now and the government would be back in business but as we know, Trump is not "normal" in any sense of the word. For the self professed greatest deal maker in the world, he cannot make a deal. Perhaps now, conservatives will realize their blunder and see that their emperor has no clothes.