\nWe are 17 days into the Trump shutdown and with no end in sight it\nappears this will break the record for length of s shut down. This dubious distinction is no source of\npride but rather further indication of the failings of our so-called leaders. President Trump stated on numerous occasions\nthat he wanted this shutdown, so it is aptly named. Congress passed legislation in December by\noverwhelming majorities of both houses and that the President planned to\nsign. He balked at the last minute because\nof pressure from Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh. \nTrump accepted the inane ramblings of Limbaugh, an uneducated,\ninexperienced blowhard looking for ratings over the career experts and even his\nown Republican Congressional leadership. \nAs Mitch McConnell stated, shutdowns are bad politics. I find myself in rare full agreement with\nhim. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nPresident Trump claims this is about our security. The shutdown has nothing to do with national\nsecurity. There is no dispute over\nfunding the Department of Homeland Security or the various agencies within that\nperform vital national security and border security functions. In fact, the shutdown is hindering their very\nefforts to keep us safe and enforce the law. \nIf for some unforeseeable reason the shutdown was a necessary mechanism\nto fund the essential agencies that defend the nation, then that would be an\nimportant justification. However, that\nis not at all the case here. No, Trump\u2019s\nshutdown is wholly based on desperate political gamesmanship. Republicans and Democrats in Congress all\ndesire to fund the government, open the government, and ensure our essential\nservices. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nOnly President Trump wants the government shut, using it as a shameful\nstunt to appease his extremist base. He\nand members of the administration shamefully spread mistruths about the\nsituation at the border to try and garner support for his wall. The number of individuals here illegally has\ncontinued to decline. The overwhelming\nmajority entered the country legally and overstayed their visas. Those suspected of links to terrorism tend to\nenter the country by airports, very few by the southern border. Most importantly, experts say the wall would\nnot be an effective mechanism to improve or ensure border security. It is merely \u201cred meat\u201d for campaign rallies. The Department of Homeland Security, along\nwith multiple intelligence and law enforcement agencies, continue to do an\nincredible job protecting the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nIt is unforgivable to use government shutdowns to conduct a policy\nfight. The President and Congress are\nelected to represent their constituents and to do the right thing for the\ncountry. Each election has consequences\nand support for specific policies, priorities, and programs will change after\neach. The American people, apparently\n65%, oppose the Trump concrete barrier wall. \nIt makes little sense for Congressional Democrats to vote in favor or\nwall funding. They continue to vote for\nborder security funding, but not wasteful extravagance of a wall that will add substantially\nto our catastrophic national debt. Republicans\nhave every reason not to support the wall but for their fear of finding\nthemselves in the President\u2019s cross hairs. \nBut for Senate GOP leadership\u2019s cowardice, they would pass the legislation\nto open government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nThe paramount issue here is all the innocent, dedicated, hard-working\nfederal employees not receiving their well-deserved pay. This is in no way a vacation for them. Many are forced to work, incurring associated\ncosts such as gasoline, without being paid. \nHundreds of thousands are forced to remain home, prevented from doing\nany work by law, anxiously knowing that important issues are stacking up in\ntheir respective offices. Many of them\nrely on each pay period to pay bills and support families. They cannot make mortgage payments, tuition\npayments, rent payments, utilities payments, or buy groceries. No taxpayer will receive their government\nrefund, to which they are entitled, until the government re-opens and the IRS\nprocesses their returns. The same goes\nfor small businesses, most of whom also rely on these refunds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nThere are also thousands of people who had planned, purchased, and even\nbegun vacations. For many, this was a\nonce in a lifetime opportunity to see Washington, DC, New York, or any of the\namazing museums, national monuments, and national parks throughout the\ncountry. This includes foreign tourists\nwho are seeing first-hand the disgusting degradation of our politics. They excitedly arrive at any of our\nspectacular sights only to find the entrance closed with a sign announcing the\ngovernment shutdown. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
There were shutdowns during my career. As a supervisor, I was required to deliver them written notice of their furloughs during the shutdown. This unenviable and outright offensive task resulted in fear and despair amongst the workforce, including many outstanding career professionals. We could see the anxiety and consternation in their eyes. They all deserved better. Shame on you Mr. President and shame on Congress for allowing this to happen to good, decent people. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
There will always be important policy battles in government. That is how freedom and democracy work. For some issues there will be strong consensus while others result in strong opposition. It is foreseeable, regardless of party control over the House, Senate, and White House, that all three will not always reach agreement on legislation. If there is no agreement, the choices are either to move on to other business, leaving that contentious issue for another day, or whether to try and strike a deal where each side can achieve a priority and\/or sacrifice a priority. Shutting down the government is not a proper course of action, especially to address policy disagreements. Elections will help determine the will of the people. Even after an election there may remain strong disagreement. Well, if one side cannot convince the other side to vote in favor, then the legislation fails. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Congress is busy with many things, but they actually have few Constitutionally mandated requirements. The most important of those is to pass a budget and perform budget oversight over the government. Congress has abdicated this most critical of duties for decades by failing to pass actual budgets, adding unrelated legislation to force a vote, etc. The issue is that Congress continues to fail to pass actual budgets in favor of less effective continuing resolutions. Those keep the government open, but only serve to delay votes on important issues. As this is Congress\u2019s most important duty, Congress should not be able to adjourn each year until they pass a budget. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Leaders need to ensure the process begins in earnest with sufficient time to get it done, to allow for proper debate, amendment, and votes to determine what provisions, priorities, and dollar amounts survive into the final legislation. Continuing resolutions may be necessary at times, but only if the budget process continues and Congress remains in session working on the budget. Members must remain is session until a complete budget is passed. Members must not get paid during any periods of shutdown along with the rest of the government. These measures will ensure action on the budget. Now get back to work and open the government!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We are 17 days into the Trump shutdown and with no end in sight it appears this will break the record for length of s shut down. This dubious […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":186,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[123,223,300],"class_list":["post-356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-government-shut-down","tag-president-donald-trump","tag-trump-shut-down"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}