Implications Of Government Shutdown And Border Funding Dispute
What the longest shutdown in U.S. History and President Trump’s inability to compromise mean for America
By Ethan Haynes
The Progressive Teen Contributor
ROOTED IN TRADITIONAL PARTISAN DISPUTES OVER NEW DEVELOPMENTS REGARDING PERENNIAL ISSUES, the 2018–2019 government shutdown is the longest shutdown in U.S. history, surpassing the former record, which lasted for 21 days in 1995–1996. The former shutdown record constituted of a dispute between President Bill Clinton and the GOP over funding allocations for Medicare, education, environment, and public health; this conflict concluded with a bipartisan resolution to balance the budget in seven years’ time (The Bancroft Library). However, the current government shutdown under President Trump is comprised of different reasons, most notably the conflict regarding the building of Trump’s long-promised U.S.-Mexico border wall in an attempt to address national security. As of January 16th, 2019, the government has been shut down for 25 days.
There is currently no end in sight for this shutdown, considering President Trump’ recent walk out of a meeting with the Speaker of the House and the Senate Minority leader and his later validation of disinterest in compromise in a recent tweet: “Just left a meeting with Chuck and Nancy, a total waste of time. I asked what is going to happen in 30 days if I quickly open things up are you going to approve Border Security which includes a Wall or Steel Barrier? Nancy said, NO. I said bye-bye, nothing else works!” (Twitter). If the President isn’t willing to compromise on this matter, how can he call himself a “Deal Maker?” Especially if the most important part of making a deal is to negotiate and come to a compromise? The President is locked into a corner here: on one hand, if he gives into the Democratic demands, he will be put on trial during the 2020 GOP primaries for not following his main campaign promise; on the other hand, if he doesn’t give in, he is hurting the economy.
We ought to also explore how the shutdown’s overall lack of support may affect the new year’s political cycle, starting with the Republicans who oppose a wall. Rep. Mac Thornberry (TX) the top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, said this week that he opposes an emergency declaration to build the wall; along with him is Rep. Will Hurd, (Texas) whose district includes 820 miles along the border, who has repeatedly spoken out about the wall and has voted against it (The Washington Post). While these representatives don’t speak for 100% of the GOP, they both have one thing in common: they are from Texas, one of the border states, the largest one, might I add. Second, let’s look at the Democrats who are supporting building the wall. Unfortunately, after almost an hour of looking at different sources, I could not find which Democrats support the wall. The overall lack of Democratic support for such a large endeavor signals to me — and America — that not a single Democrat is breaking ranks and fighting for the wall.
One piece of information I consistently approached when researching which Democrats, if any, supported the wall was a report by the GOP and the President himself proclaiming that the Democrats originally supported a wall on the border but changed their tune once Trump was elected in 2016. The GOP posted on their website on an article titled “Democrats Then Vs. Now On Border Wall Funding”. They said that back in 2006, 80 U.S. Senators, including Debbie Stabenow, Bill Nelson, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Chuck Schumer, and Barack Obama, supported building 700 miles of border fencing (GOP). But, if we look to Politifact, it says that this is false, for Trump himself called it a “nothing wall” in the past (PolitiFact). Trump has once more added to the number of instances of his lying to the American people, reflected in PolitiFact which contains over eleven pages with such innumerable occurrences.
The President is backed into a corner. Due to the unparalleled length of the shutdown and past divisive rhetoric that led up to this conflict, negative ramifications will inevitably unfold, though the degree to which varies. He sees no way out of this; he thinks the best way out is to do what his GOP advisers tell him to do and that being to stick to his guns and keep advocating for the wall, irrespective of its consequences. This approach evinces in his retweet on December 9th, 2019 from Charlie Kirk which states: “Stand your ground President Trump, we have your back!” (Twitter).
My final thought on this shutdown is that the President is throwing a tantrum in the White House. He is abusing his power to get what he wants at any expense, including the 800,000 government employees who aren’t getting their paychecks this pay period. He needs to compromise with the Democratic party; they have already made strides, offering him a deal that would reopen the government and give him some of his desired funding, which he eventually vetoed. Democrats aren’t willing to give Trump the full $5.6 billion without anything in return; if the President wants his wall paid in full, he will have to give in to the demands of DACA and other immigration protections (Vox). For instance, the President has the ability to reopen the government and have his wall paid in full if he ensures the continuity of DACA. If this proposal does not satiate his demands, he could accept one of the other offers: $1.3 billion or $2.6 billion, both of which Democrats have offered for national security. The growing length, complexity, and conflict associated with the shutdown may possibly threaten his presidency; we may be led by a new president in the next year if Trump refuses to compromise the slightest. Whether or not he can recover is up to the American people, and we will find that out on November 3rd, 2020.
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