January 25, 2019
President Trump allowed the government to "shut down" again for the second time during his presidency, mainly due to his intransigence for a border wall in specific locations. Democrats did not want to negotiate with him and give any political victory before the 2020 election. So, the government was again at an impasse, which now seems to be an annual tradition.
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The United States government had been shut down for a record 35 days. This political farce has become a yearly event, one in which one party refuses to give any sort of political victory to the president's party that controls the White House. When President Obama was trying to pass the Affordable Care Act of 2010 ("Obamacare"), the Republicans, led by Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell, vowed to block any success by Mr. Obama and wanted him to serve only one term. Subsequently, the ACA was to take effect in 2014 and the Republicans forced a shutdown in 2013 over funding for Obamacare and raising of the debt ceiling. Now, with President Trump in the White House, Democrats are riding the wave of shock, surprise, and anger of Hillary Clinton's defeat to rob Mr. Trump of any major legislative triumph in his first term.
This pattern may win political points with the ardent supporters of each party, but the long-term effects are extremely damaging to the country as a whole. The United States government has accrued massive debt each year, and each subsequent year adds to the burden future generations of Americans will have to deal with. Foreign governments and conglomerates who buy American debt will eventually get spooked with the precarious state of our financial health. The constant shutdowns of our government are going to move America in a dangerous direction, and this practice has to stop.
This pattern may win political points with the ardent supporters of each party, but the long-term effects are extremely damaging to the country as a whole. The United States government has accrued massive debt each year, and each subsequent year adds to the burden future generations of Americans will have to deal with. Foreign governments and conglomerates who buy American debt will eventually get spooked with the precarious state of our financial health. The constant shutdowns of our government are going to move America in a dangerous direction, and this practice has to stop.
The current mess is the result of a refusal by President Trump, a Democratic House, and a Republican Senate to negotiate a settlement of policy differences relating to immigration and the building of a large border wall to restrict the illegal entering of immigrants into the United States. The Trump administration asked initially $1.7 billion for the building of the wall but changed that amount to $7 billion. The Democrats approved the first amount, but then balked at the larger number, which despite what the federal government spends on other programs, is a pittance. One wonders why the president did not push for the wall funding when the Republicans had control of both the House and Senate in 2017.
I suspect Speaker Pelosi and her caucus did not want to give President Trump any sort of political victory, even though the amount all parties are fighting over is trivial compared to what the federal government spends on the whole. The Democratic base hates President Trump and is very supportive of this confrontation with the President. Compounding this conflict are 800,000 federal workers who are struggling to make their mortgage, car and other payments because of their lack of a steady paycheck. They are simply innocent players in a damaging, petty war between two political parties who grow more and more warlike in their fight with each other. Those workers, along with the general public, continue to lose trust in American democracy and government institutions.
Recently, President Trump unveiled a proposal to protect (meaning delay) any action on so-called Dreamers (the DACA bill, which is known as the "Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals). This would allow Dreamers, or children of undocumented immigrants, along with war-torn hopeful refugees (assigned Temporary Protected Status), a chance to live in the United States without fear of deportation for three years. In return, the Democrat-controlled House would provide the requested funding of $5.7 billion for the border wall. Democrats refused any consideration of this, and the government shows no signs of returning to business. At some point, these federal workers, whose knowledge of the federal government and its intricate processes, will leave the federal workforce. This will be an epic loss for our country. Regardless of how you feel about the government, having knowledgeable people who help a government function, one as large as ours, will not make things better.
Conservatives have never been a fan of government, since their ideology promotes less government intrusion into the lives of citizens, and empowers those individuals to determine their futures, with religious and political viewpoints. I feel that they are not too worried about the shutdown, which could be an excuse to see the government (and its power, basically) shrink to ineffective levels and not be a bother to Americans, especially wealthy citizens and large corporations, who want less taxation and intrusive and cumbersome regulations. I do not share this belief. At this time, the United States is the richest and most powerful country in the world. It needs a strong government to administer functions of a western-style republic: provide funds for national defense, transportation infrastructure, support for education, focusing primarily on colleges and universities, effective law enforcement, a fair and ethical legal system, and opportunities for citizens in lower socio-economic backgrounds to move out of poverty and into the middle and upper classes.
Democrats, I feel, use government too much to pander to their base by using the government to enact social engineering, such as, through laws that force companies to adhere to environmental regulations (some are good, like fuel efficiency for automobiles), and hinder corporations from their own goals, for gender and diversity agendas.
What is the best way forward from this crisis?
I think the Democrats should give President Trump his requested amount for the wall, even though it would anger their base. If the government was open, and the Democrats were fighting Trump on other legislation, I could understand their intensity. However, in this case, hundreds of thousands of federal employees will go into debt, miss mortgage payments, not have money for food, since many of them are like most Americans, and live paycheck to paycheck. The amount both the Democrats and President Trump are fighting over is minuscule, but the ideological victory and the voter enthusiasm that comes with it is too great to avoid for either side.
One of the sad parts of this fight is that many intelligent people who serve their country by working as federal employees could drop and that would not serve the country well. A federal government that is staffed by mediocre people does not bode well for the preservation of those government institutions (such as the IRS, Department of Justice, Department of Defense).
The Democrats should play the long game. They should allow President Trump his "victory" for border wall funding because, in reality, that amount would fund the amount needed for the wall in specific high-traffic areas where border crossings were frequent. During the next two years, the Democrats can stop the majority of the president's intended agenda, including the possible nomination of a third Supreme Court Justice. Allowing federal employees to suffer in order to deal the administration a legislative defeat that can be used against them in the 2020 presidential election year. Focusing on the minor amount is a hill the Democrats should not die on.
As of today, January 25th, President Trump announced a deal to end the shutdown. Perhaps in the future, a session of Congress can pass legislation to prevent government shutdowns longer than two weeks? A bill could be introduced to not pay members of Congress until the shutdown is over (like many federal workers endure) and government resumes its core functions? That could be one way to limit the number of shutdowns every few years. I firmly believe something good can come out of this sad episode of our democracy.
I suspect Speaker Pelosi and her caucus did not want to give President Trump any sort of political victory, even though the amount all parties are fighting over is trivial compared to what the federal government spends on the whole. The Democratic base hates President Trump and is very supportive of this confrontation with the President. Compounding this conflict are 800,000 federal workers who are struggling to make their mortgage, car and other payments because of their lack of a steady paycheck. They are simply innocent players in a damaging, petty war between two political parties who grow more and more warlike in their fight with each other. Those workers, along with the general public, continue to lose trust in American democracy and government institutions.
Recently, President Trump unveiled a proposal to protect (meaning delay) any action on so-called Dreamers (the DACA bill, which is known as the "Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals). This would allow Dreamers, or children of undocumented immigrants, along with war-torn hopeful refugees (assigned Temporary Protected Status), a chance to live in the United States without fear of deportation for three years. In return, the Democrat-controlled House would provide the requested funding of $5.7 billion for the border wall. Democrats refused any consideration of this, and the government shows no signs of returning to business. At some point, these federal workers, whose knowledge of the federal government and its intricate processes, will leave the federal workforce. This will be an epic loss for our country. Regardless of how you feel about the government, having knowledgeable people who help a government function, one as large as ours, will not make things better.
Conservatives have never been a fan of government, since their ideology promotes less government intrusion into the lives of citizens, and empowers those individuals to determine their futures, with religious and political viewpoints. I feel that they are not too worried about the shutdown, which could be an excuse to see the government (and its power, basically) shrink to ineffective levels and not be a bother to Americans, especially wealthy citizens and large corporations, who want less taxation and intrusive and cumbersome regulations. I do not share this belief. At this time, the United States is the richest and most powerful country in the world. It needs a strong government to administer functions of a western-style republic: provide funds for national defense, transportation infrastructure, support for education, focusing primarily on colleges and universities, effective law enforcement, a fair and ethical legal system, and opportunities for citizens in lower socio-economic backgrounds to move out of poverty and into the middle and upper classes.
Democrats, I feel, use government too much to pander to their base by using the government to enact social engineering, such as, through laws that force companies to adhere to environmental regulations (some are good, like fuel efficiency for automobiles), and hinder corporations from their own goals, for gender and diversity agendas.
What is the best way forward from this crisis?
I think the Democrats should give President Trump his requested amount for the wall, even though it would anger their base. If the government was open, and the Democrats were fighting Trump on other legislation, I could understand their intensity. However, in this case, hundreds of thousands of federal employees will go into debt, miss mortgage payments, not have money for food, since many of them are like most Americans, and live paycheck to paycheck. The amount both the Democrats and President Trump are fighting over is minuscule, but the ideological victory and the voter enthusiasm that comes with it is too great to avoid for either side.
One of the sad parts of this fight is that many intelligent people who serve their country by working as federal employees could drop and that would not serve the country well. A federal government that is staffed by mediocre people does not bode well for the preservation of those government institutions (such as the IRS, Department of Justice, Department of Defense).
The Democrats should play the long game. They should allow President Trump his "victory" for border wall funding because, in reality, that amount would fund the amount needed for the wall in specific high-traffic areas where border crossings were frequent. During the next two years, the Democrats can stop the majority of the president's intended agenda, including the possible nomination of a third Supreme Court Justice. Allowing federal employees to suffer in order to deal the administration a legislative defeat that can be used against them in the 2020 presidential election year. Focusing on the minor amount is a hill the Democrats should not die on.
As of today, January 25th, President Trump announced a deal to end the shutdown. Perhaps in the future, a session of Congress can pass legislation to prevent government shutdowns longer than two weeks? A bill could be introduced to not pay members of Congress until the shutdown is over (like many federal workers endure) and government resumes its core functions? That could be one way to limit the number of shutdowns every few years. I firmly believe something good can come out of this sad episode of our democracy.
I think you give this democracy a lot of credit. It seems like it was the Republican Party who took the long view....back in the 90s, perhaps earlier, that democracy was for chumps. The Republicans seemed to be following the Lewis Powell strategy of ending "liberalism" by neutering universities and unions, promoting corporate power, taking over the media, start up think tanks, etc. Read the Powell Memo from 1971. And Powell was no chump....Nixon put him on the Supreme Court later on.
ReplyDeleteThe point is: I believe this goes back decades and our problems are deeply systemic and I see absolutely no constitutional remedy for our most salient problems: a partisan judiciary, a neutered congress, and an executive that has become too powerful in the years since the First Gulf War.
You have shown the lack of maturity and wisdom of both parties in playing politics at the expense of the livelihoods of the citizens of this country. I don't expect this to get any better since revenge politics will dominate any sensible solutions for difficult and divisive problems that are priorities. This is still a reasonable democratic country compared to others in the western world but citizens should be more informed and interested in trying to make things better and voting in the right persons for the job.
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