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Almost a million people who work for our government still aren’t getting paid because of the partial government shutdown now in its 19th day. Not because we don’t have the money to pay them, but because they have become pawns in President Donald Trump’s political power game. He wants things his way or no way. If you can’t pay your rent or mortgage, buy food or put gas in your car, does he really care? It appears not. The severity for those involved is great. Businesses large and small will feel the trickle-down effect as the days go on. And it didn’t have to happen.
The partial shutdown is the result of a stalemate over Trump's demand for $5.7 billion dollars to fund a wall on the U.S.- Mexico border. This is the same wall Mexico was supposed to pay for, or at least that’s what Trump repeatedly told us during his campaign. But Mexico isn’t going to pay for the wall. No surprise.
A short term funding proposal was put together by Republicans at the end of the year that would have kept the government open. It was initially agreed to by Trump even though it had no money in it for his wall. Then conservative pundits stepped in and apparently swayed his thinking. That wall is a big crowd pleaser for his base. So at the last minute Trump torpedoed the Republican proposal, and on December 21st, the partial government shutdown began.
In order to justify his action, the president went on national television to tell us all about a “humanitarian crisis” taking place at our southern border. “A crisis of the heart, and a crisis of the soul”, he said. But whose heart and whose soul and what crisis was he talking about? There was only one ominous reference in his speech to those going without money because of the shutdown he has ordered. The issues at our southern border need to be resolved, but at what cost?
There are so many parts of this latest Trump episode coming together to create a vivid reality of the man who is a master at diverting attention to get attention. His national address turned a prime time spotlight on once again, but that was it. It was a political speech telling us how bad the Democrats are for not giving him the $5.7 billion dollars he wants to build a wall - part of which is already in place. The shutdown and the speech take momentary attention away from special counsel Robert Mueller’s work, as well as most things Russia and Trump.
This is the first time that Democrats have control of Congress since Trump was elected, and he doesn’t seem to know how to handle it. Or Nancy Pelosi. His fall back in dealing with them has become the one thing he is used to doing. Make it an either/or situation. I win. You lose. But our democracy doesn’t work that way.
Democrats have offered $1.3 billion to enhance border security. Trump, the man trying to save face for his base, says it’s not enough. But who says that negotiations on border security can’t continue if 800,000 people are brought back to work and get paid? Trump and the slew of Republicans that remain under his spell who don’t care about the humanitarian crisis of their own making. Somehow the administration’s announcement that food stamps would be available to help some people affected by the shutdown just doesn’t do it. It was unconscionable.