Government Shutdown: Who Will Suffer The Consequences?

The Liberal In The Basement

So, let's talk about the border wall. I mean, I don't want to, but you know, it's gotta happen. Our president is wanting a border wall between Mexico and the US, causing a rift in Congress. The Democrats don't want a border wall, while there are some Republicans who are in favor of the wall.

Sidebar time. According to a Republican Views Article, only 74% of republican politicians are in favor of the wall. Here's the rub though, the favoring is all due to demographics of the country. The closer a republican is to the Mexican American Border, the less they favor the $8 billion dollar wall. The further away they are from the wall, the more they support the building of the wall. Talking to some people from CHS (republicans) about this issue, I heard some that were very different than the ones I believed. For example, one of my peers said that those closer to the border don't want a wall because drugs and other substances come from the border. While this is true, it seems to me that that can not be the only reason they are opposed to the border wall. One issue people like to keep bringing up on this topic is that people may come from Mexico and steal American jobs. Yeah, right. If that were true, wouldn't those closer to the border be struggling and pushing for the wall more than those out of the range of the (if any) job loss?

Now, I am not talking only about the wall right here, I'm also talking about the government shutdown. For those of you who don't know, a government shutdown is when parts of the government have to pause operations for an unspecified amount of time due to budget problems. 2019 didn't starting positively in the political spectrum seeing as the US was locked in 2018's third government shutdown which began December 22nd, 2018. The shutdown did end around January 29th, so uh, progress. The original problem arose with Trump's $5.7 billion proposal for border wall which led to a type of gridlock on the Congress floor.

A government shutdown doesn't seem like a huge deal to many people, and that is right to an extent. "Essential" programs were still up and running, as well as some programs which are funded by existing bills. Roughly three quarters of the government were covered by existing bills, so about 75% of the government was still running during this shutdown. That remaining 25% doesn't seem like a big deal, but it could have lasting impact on the fiscal year.

Mandatory spending programs such as Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid did not shut down due to their pay-in system. You may now be asking, 'what is a pay-in system?' The simplified answer is: missing part of your paycheck. When you look at your paycheck you may notice that there is some money that wasn't given to you and put into Social Security instead. That missing bit of money going to Social Security pays for those currently drawing and depending on the Social Security program. Because you paid into this for others, you will also get to use Social Security funds from others still earning a paycheck. The pay-in system is effective in maintaining the integrity of these mandatory spending medical programs during times of government disrepair.

Besides the mandatory spending programs, veterans benefits as well as veterans hospitals were still open. The department of Veterans affairs was fully funded, so the daily operations of benefits and hospitals for veterans remained the same as usual. Furthermore, food stamps and subsidized lunches were still available. Border Control programs, the Mueller Investigation, Air Traffic Control, and the Transportation Security Administration were fully funded through their classifications as essential.

Now lets talk Trump. He threatened to keep the government shutdown for months or years, which ummm newsflash, he really cannot do that. Having the government shutdown for even a short period of time is detrimental to the American Economy. I'm not fully convinced that Trump understands how our economy fully functions. He suggested that those furloughed employees ask for mercy from their landlord when they can't pay rent. Yeah, um, that's not how that works, dude. Thousands of workers were struggling with being on furlough, which limited those thousands of workers from inputting money into the economy, thus not allowing it to continue to grow or not to shrink.

So, as promised in the title, let's talk about who suffered during this shutdown. To start, all government employees who were furloughed were without pay and had no offered assistance from the stubborn president. Finally, Trump will suffer. He is placed basically his entire presidency on this wall, which is so far biting him in the butt. And I believe that his campaign promise will hurt him more than he knows.