Miller, on verge of frothing at mouth over immigration, says Trump will “absolutely” shut down the government over Christmas unless he gets funding for the border wall. pic.twitter.com/gbNlNKSD7v
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 16, 2018
What to Expect
Here’s what to expect in a Government Shutdown.
- The Postal Service is an independent agency, so it won’t be affected in any government shutdown.
- Air-traffic controllers still will be on the job and customs and border agents will continue working at border crossings.
- Amtrak, a government-owned corporation, also will operate as usual.
- Those who want to go to national parks and federally operated museums could find popular places closed or hours curtailed.
- The national zoos may close but the zoo’s animal caretakers always are considered essential.
- Food-safety inspections continue but could be curtailed if a shutdown lingers.
- Social Security benefits still go out, as will Medicare services and benefits from programs such as the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program and Women, Infants and Children for at least as long as some carryover money in the states or the federal accounts are available.
The main disruption, initially, will be at national parks, museums, and zoos. There may also be delays in economic reports. Otherwise, the average person may not notice anything.
How about turning the parks over to the states and just shutting down everything deemed non-essential?
Roughly a quarter of the federal government will shut down next Friday absent a bipartisan deal. What portions of that do we really need?
Why do we need the department of energy, education, HUD, etc. etc? Even if we need parts of those agencies, how bloated are those bureaucracies?
Blame Game
A new USA Today/Suffolk University poll says America Blames Trump and GOP for the Shutdown.
- Forty-three percent of those polled said they would blame the president and the GOP, while 24 percent would hold congressional Democrats responsible, and 30 percent would regard both sides as equally at fault.
- An overwhelming majority—54 percent to 29 percent—said they opposed the shutdown that Trump had threatened unless Congress provided $5 billion funding for his wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
- The poll found a sharp partisan divide, with 83 percent of Democrats opposed to a shutdown, whereas two-thirds of Republicans were supportive.
- It found that 57 percent of Americans believed Trump should broker a compromise to prevent a shutdown, while 36 percent believed he should refuse to compromise.
Honest Discussion Needed
How would people have voted if they were informed they would not be directly impacted in the least?
Of course, mass firings would have an economic toll, so everyone would suffer via an indirect impact
But rather than mass hysteria over $5 billion, how about an honest discussion of $21 trillion in national debt and trillion dollar deficits as far as the eye can see?
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
The end result will be free vacation time for many fed employees. I would guess 80% of fed employees are democrats so they’ll blame the pubs and talk about how their personnel sacrifice of getting paid not to work is for the best interest of the country.
30% less Federal government would be a good thing, how can we see it any other way? unless you believe the news media that life support will be shut off and free services will end.
Every American is impacted by a shutdown whether they are smart enough to realize it or not. Each shut down costs the taxpayer an enormous amount of money. There will be thousands of government flights, hotel reservations, and training costs that are a write off. These will all be repurchased, not to mention contracts that will be renegotiated and penalties on contracts if the shut down drags on. It is too bad that our politicians (congress and president) waste so much of our money and that they are unable or unwilling to do the job the were elected to do (pass a damn budget).
Nonsense. Trump will, with virtually absolute certainty, “absolutely” not shut down any meaningful share of government whatsoever.
And if he did, only the dimmest of bulbs, and those directly benefiting from the racket, would be “blaming” anyone for such an unmitigated blessing for all of mankind.
“How about turning the parks over to the states and just shutting down everything deemed non-essential?”
Or, better, everything The Founders deemed non-essential.
There’s nothing more fundamentally totalitarian, than paying heed to whatever nonsense some useless, privileged twits decide to “deem.”
I seriously doubt there will be even ONE “honest discussion” during the reign of King Chaos.
If a quarter of the government can shut down and we’ll barely notice.
Then that;s what should happen. Permanently would be even better.
But either way, Build the damn Wall.
What happened to Mexico paying for the wall?
Was there anyone who didn’t know that was a lie?
It wasn’t a lie. It was hyperbole. It was obvious, even at the time, that no one seriously believed it; it was just for making the point that a wall was needed.
Bring the troops home from around the world. Completely. Shut down all foreign military installations. Maintain the bare minimum military needed to deter nuclear attack and naval assault from foreign countries. There, balanced the budget for you while keeping you safe. Freedom isn’t free, but it does cost about 1/1000th of what we are spending today.
Now, per the wall, and before implementing the DOD reductions mentioned above, we will need a full-scale military assault on Mexico’s ladder makers. We will also need to put a blockade on Mexican ports to ensure they don’t import ladders from foreign countries. Then you can build a wall as an effective deterrent. I’m confident President Trump has thought all this through though.
Walls are an effective deterrent, which is why the democrats don’t want one built.
Walls stop people flying in? How high are these walls?
Sure, some people can afford plane tickets and will overstay their visa. That doesn’t change the fact most poor migrants, whether in the US or Europe, simply can’t afford to fly in. Otherwise, given it’s much safer, I’m sure they would.
Jon you need to check your math….
DOD budget is running about 760 billion a year… National debt going up over 1 Trillion a year…. So even if you zero out defense spending you won’t balance the budget….
Our national debt is due primarily to entitlements that eat up about 70% of the federal budget..
Interest payment too!
Then cancel those as well…. And then continue with the rest of the nonsense government is involved in.
A lot of the government is already funded for 2019 so it’s my understanding they would not be shutdown at all, most notably DOD.
“Honest Discussion Needed”
don’t expect one. Reform won’t happen until there is a crisis. It took weeks of protests to get Macron’s attention. The Yellow Vests are not out on the streets in the USA, yet.
Paid holiday vacations for .Gov drones.
I’m sure they are in tears over it.