BY SEAN BUFF | STAFF WRITER
The act of a government shutdown is a normal occurrence in modern day American politics. In our partisan world, it is more ammunition in a politician’s ammo box. As of January 2018, there have been three government shutdowns, the most recent in December 2018. This time, border security was the cause of the shutdown, regardless if you blame Senator Schumer or President Trump. President Trump is blamed for not dropping his campaign promise of a border wall along the U.S.- Mexico border, while Senator Schumer is blamed for rallying fellow Democratic Senators to vote against President Trump’s border wall. However, a third-party with a large amount of blame has been overlooked. As Senate Majority Leader, Senator Mitch McConnell has the power known as the “nuclear option” to lower the required vote count to pass a wall spending bill from 60 to 51. Majority Leader McConnell chose not to forgo this option. How come? Was this a political move on his part? We do not know.
Another question to be asked is if President Trump is playing a political game by shutting part of the government down or if he has the best interests of the American citizen in mind in regard to border security. With many of the recent news headlines relating to illegal immigration and the U.S.- Mexico border, President Trump is not pulling a political stunt by shutting down part of the government. Earlier this year, a young college student from Iowa named Mollie Tibbets was brutally murdered by a Mexican living in the U.S. illegally. In San Francisco, a jury acquitted another illegal alien of murder, setting him free into the streets. Most recently, a 34-year-old police officer, who happened to be a legal immigrant from Fiji, in California was shot and killed by an illegal alien from Mexico during a DUI stop. That happened after this officer began his night shift after celebrating Christmas that morning with his wife and child who is less than one year old.
It is clear that House Republicans know a border wall would not only help reduce illegal immigration, but also reduce tragedies to innocent American citizens caused by the actions of illegal aliens. However, Senate Democrats do not have the same vision. Since Senators on both sides of the aisle were not able to pass a spending bill, which included money for a border wall, part of the federal government shutdown.
With the shutdown comes many consequences: millions of federal employees who were deemed “unessential” were told not to report to work while other employees who were deemed “essential”, including the military and border patrol, still had to report to work. When these essential employees would be paid is another question due to payroll being shut down as an unessential government service. Currently, the Trump Administration is a defendant in a lawsuit filed by a union of federal employees. Government shutdowns are often very expensive. This partial shutdown has an estimated price tag of $24 billion, all because the Senate could not allocate $5 billion for a border wall. Within these costs include the monetary value of sending notices not to come to work for federal employees, notices to return to work, and restarting government services. National parks and attractions are not generating revenue during government shutdowns, resulting in the U.S. Treasury bringing in less money.
The government shutdown was a bad money move on the parts of Senators Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell. A border wall would only cost $5 billion while the shutdown costs $24 billion. In the end, Congress had to pay almost five times the value of the wall. For what? A political stunt. Democrats in Congress did not want to see President Trump win the debate on immigration by building the border wall.
Sources:
https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-government-shutdown-costs-20181224-story.html