Shut downs slow the economy? No kidding. Shut downs hurt people, in ways immediate and long term. But this editorial, for all its pontificating, needs to hold blame all the way around: the Democrats are intractable, Speaker Pelosi is a hostage to newcomers in Congress, the very ones the NYT does fawning photo essays about, on the front page forever. Federal employees are going to food banks to put a meal on the table and we are feted to these inexperienced newbies. Compromise involves both sides. Pelosi needs to give half, and Trump needs to give up half (the wall funding) and open the government immediately.
Maybe three's the charm....
What is going on in this picture for the article?! (I can't figure it out and I'm starting wonder if voting for Trump actually made me dumb.)
1
My suggestion to The Editorial Board to highlight the 'Slowing down the USA's economy and the probability of China to overtake USA as the strongest economy of the world in the near future."
1
Yes: If You Shut Down the Government, You Slow Down the Economy. Trump is executing everything Putin instructed him to do. Any more doubt that Trump is a Russian asset?
1
Astate shutdown is unthinkable and unbelievable. How can you tolerate a Government unable to handle its finances?
Where is the evidence of economic growth? Two of my investment funds show "growth" of -18% in 2018. Yes, that is minus 18%. Please, NYTimes, tell your readers where to find this "growth".
I seem to remember somebody saying that the nine most frightening words in the English language are:
"I'm from the government and I am here to help."
He also famously said: "In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem." That was at his Inaugural on January 20, 1981.
https://youtu.be/XObcP69dhCg
Funny thing. We have just been through a mere four weeks of the shutdown of about ONE QUARTER of the "gummint" and there are people who are screaming, literally screaming, that it needs to be reopened ASAP.
Four weeks. Twenty eight days. Not the rest of your life.
I suspect quite a few of those screaming people are CONSERVATIVES, like farmers and small business owners, who skew Republican.
Gee, maybe Saint Ronnie was WRONG.
"Gummint" does not seem to be the problem.
LACK of "Gummint" appears to be the problem.
1
It's very simple. The real reason Republicans will not move on immigration is because it is a convenient trope to continually bring up to their voting base. They have no desire to actually "fix" immigration, only to wield it as a big bad bogeyman that they can blame for the woes of the working class, all the while robbing us blind and curtailing our rights. End of story. When the American people stop this abuse by refusing to be doormats? Never, because the voting block who support this nonsense are not very bright.
1
Trump has no immigration policy or any other policy for governing our nation. He is motivated only by his racism and his hatred of his predecessor, and his desire to stay in office (thus out of prison). Both motivations require that he cater to white racists, thus his continuing haranguing about a wall that is nothing more than a racist stunt. Of course whites will be hurt by this government shutdown, perhaps as much as minority citizens, but they don't care. After all, a rabid Trump supporter this week was quoted here in the Times as saying "He's not hurting the people he's supposed to be hurting." Translated: Do whatever it takes to harm brown-skinned people, no matter the cost to the rest of us.
This publication, and other reputable news sources need to stop writing serious columns about this president's "policies" or manner of "governing", as if he were a decent, sane, qualified man. He is none of these things. He has no use for facts and reality, and neither does his base, who remain in lock step with him, two years on.
The only lens through which we need to look to understand Trump's actions is race. Is a particular action designed to hurt brown-skinned people? Well, then, his base loves it.
And this is all Trump voters want. A president who continues to tell them that they're the "real" Americans, and a president whose policies help only them. Their views explain every action of Trump's since he took office. And this is all they've ever wanted.
3
Government? Isn’t that the thing Republicans want to drown in a bathtub? The thing that only steals money & wastes it like a parasite? It was Reagan who pointed out that government isn’t a solution, government is the problem? Isn’t it a Conservative Republican belief that the only purpose of government is the military?
For decades Republicans seems to have been preaching that the best government Is no government at all.
And that joke that Republicans believe government doesn’t work & when they get elected they prove it?
Well, we are getting a taste of what it is like to be a failed state with no government thanks to Trump and the Republicans.
1
While this editorial is timely, precise and accurate, I believe you have failed to capture this president's attention. To improve its relevancy, you should have used the following headline:
"If You Shut Down the Government, You Slow Down Trump Club Profits."
2
This description of the domino effect is beautiful in its simplicity, but it is addressed to a person who cannot comprehend an impact more than six feet beyond his own nose. The mistake the Editorial Board makes in writing this is that the Trump fan base (which probably can comprehend this) cares. Their big issue is xenophobic, not economic.
This shutdown will continue because we have one party working for America and the other party under the direct control of a foreign entity. President Trump and the GOP are working for America while the Democrats are under the direct control of Central/South American drug cartels. The Democrats must keep the borders open because their cartel masters order it, regardless of what is best for America
If you don't pay a worker to work, he doesn't pay other people.
The 800,000 workers actively furloughed is the tip of the iceberg. When you add in contractors - people who do research for NASA, design military equipment, run labs for the NIH, work on bridges, dams, roads, cleaning services - you get into cutting jobs in the millions. And when they don't get lunch at the local diner, don't pay for gas, cut spending so that they can try to pay the prioritized bills, like their roof and their heat, local businesses lose cash flow - putting their own workers in jeopardy.
All this disruption because the bully in chief has to save face, and needs to make the Democrats look bad, so he issued a losing ultimatum. All because he needs to distract from the Mueller investigation, and needs to rally his maga-cap base.
Oh yeah, he's a very stable genius. Our very own Wile E. Coyote, blowing himself up with Acme dynamite, and taking us all with him.
86
@Cathy
Hmm, I identify with the coyote, still, more than that smug road runner.
The commere cascade you describe above is as true as is trickle-down economics. Everyone's fate in Iowa is tied to agribusiness, but how many Iowans OWN farms and directly get the farm subsidies? I guess I'd prefer to be right on that teet and run an NIH lab than be lapping up the leftovers. (Though dogs will tell you calf manure is something special.)
2
It's as if a mafioso were holding up us all, demanding protection money - or else. "Nice country you've got here, hate to see anything happen to it."
42
But, the emails!
( When all else fails ... )
1
The Times knows the president cares about only one thing, his ratings, and yet the Editorial Board repeatedly appeals to his sense of logic - of which he has none. If logic was a thing, The Donald, for all his colossal mistakes and broken promises, would be toughing out his days and nights between a park bench and a cardboard box like so many of his betters.
4
For Trump, the only face-saving way out of his self-inflicted dilemma is to declare a national emergency and lay the whole matter on the courts. Whatever the outcome, he can show his base that he exhausted all options to deliver on his promise to build a wall. Let’s see what comes out of today’s announcement.
1
Economists are forecasting that the effects of the shutdown, by the end of March might well erase all growth, setting aside any effects from the drifting trade war. Establishment Republicans, both around the country and in Congress, have got to be growing more unsettled by the day. This could have a lot to do with Donald Trump's climbing disapprovals and sinking approvals. Suburban women fall into a similar, even more striking pattern. Immigration and the "Wall" are not that high on either of these two Republican strongholds priorities. Business oriented Republicans in particular, especially those connected to farming and ranching, understand, all to well, the need for cheap immigrant labor. Surely the people around Donald Trump are telling him about this, yet it seems to have no effect. He's out on the White House lawn blustering about his wall, to reporters on Saturday morning, headed into the fifth week, with no end in sight.
2
I'd like to see some dollar amounts of the losses suffered when this shutdown ends.
3
The goal of dismantling the “administrative state “ seems to be well underway
4
While I agree with this editorial, there is a much deeper, fundamental issue we need to address behind government shutdowns. The shutdown is an immoral political con. Fact is federal workers have absolutely nothing to do with a border wall. Yet it is their paychecks that are being held hostage. Worse, tens of thousands of them are being manipulated by being forced to go to work without those paychecks. This is made possible by the fact politicians outlawed federal workers right to strike several decades ago. Politicians have since learned that, as a result of no redress being available to employees, presidents and Congresses can hold federal employees hostage in order to browbeat the public and/or the opposition whenever they want to wield that cudgel. This is morally wrong! Period! We need to demand an end to the shut down now. But once that is accomplished, we should demand that federal workers right to strike be restored. That’s probably the only way we can stop politicians from abusing both their power and our federal workers. Let us return common decency to the treatment of our 800,000 fellow citizens who serve us in the federal workforce.
7
It certainly was very likely we'd fall into recession by 2020 before the shutdown, so that likelihood just increased and continues to do so,
Perhaps the ultimate irony will be that Trump himself, not Mueller, not any other force will lead to his downfall with a recession he abetted that hits just at election time 2020.
The genius of winning not.
1
Yeah. As of a couple of days ago, King Donald has impressed himself upon myself and my wife, quite directly. Our little (7-person; two physics PhDs and 5 other highly skilled/long-term aerospace R&D jocks) LLC partnership company has about $600K of outstanding invoices in with NASA and DoD, and we need about $150K/month to function. I own 40% of the company, and so guess what, I got to come up with $60,000 by the end of January to help keep us afloat until he turns the government back on and we get paid for the work we've already done for him. Even if he turned the lights back on TODAY, we'll be screwed due to an unfathomable backlog in the accounts-payable offices of these entities (assuming they haven't all given up and gotten jobs at McDonalds by then) that is expected to take many weeks to work through. Hello, second mortgage and credit card to round up the necessary funds. Is my situation "first-world-problem"-level, compared to folks getting kicked out of their apartments and scrounging meals? Sure, but a problem nonetheless. Do I want to see Donald Trump get so distraught that he jumps off his own Tower? Sure, that would be boffo television, man.
113
Why is no one screaming in the direction of Mitch McConnell? Pass the stupid bill already and override the impending veto so that the country can get on with its business. Cowards, every last one of them....
17
This is real tricle-down economy!
2
"If he only had a brain..........."
6
But good for the climate, no?
No surprises here. But, can someone read this out loud on Fox and friends? Otherwise, the intended reader of this editorial will not see it.
6
If this keeps up, Mexico will build a wall to keep us out.
9
Oh NYT , look at the bright side.
Russian government open and working well...… please.
1
The shutdown slowdown is a feature not a bug.
It is clear to me that this president is working for a foreign power and his enablers have a lot to hide.
Nothing else explains why Senate republicans have gone along on this suicide mission
6
With the latest revelations of this week, Trump's Putin assignment would be to destroy 'the full faith and credit' of the United States.
This permanent shutdown would be phase one.
The coup d gras will come in July 2019 when he drives the country into default by refusing to raise the debt ceiling.
He will figure if he's going down everybody is going down.
The GOP may sober up and try to stop him, but it may be too late by then. He's figuring out how much damage he can do and he is enjoying it.
195
@Chris Morris, you are spot on!
11
@Chris Morris It is no longer simply ironic that every action on Trump's part is helpful to Putin and Russia.
We are already within the first and hopefully only term of DJT facing the compromise of US influence, the vacuum of which will quickly be filled by "known" competitors,
Add in the massive deregulation of the worst polluting industries and the failure to address rapid global warming changes and we're officially a "mess".,
13
He's not taking his ball and going home--he's popping the ball and knocking down the basket.
4
Why aren't TSA workers striking? In any other country in the world, people would be out in the streets - rightly so - if they were being asked to work for weeks without pay. Yes, I understand that it's technically illegal for many federal workers to strike, but what are they gonna do, fire all 50,000+ TSA and related workers?
American workers have got to get less docile. Decades of "job-creator" worship by politicians and the media have made US workers servile. Guess what? The economy doesn't work without your labor! Don't devalue it by working for free, for crying out loud.
265
@Vin
If they strike they risk jail. But they could do a work slowdown. Follow the rules exactally, take their time, examining anything that might/could be an issue. Don't rush. Its a way of striking without walking off the jobs.
65
@Vin
Perhaps you're too young to know why TSA workers aren't striking.
In 1981, the Air Traffic Controllers did just that. And President Reagan fired the 11,345 striking air traffic controllers who had ignored the order, and banned them from federal service for life. Look it up.
74
@sjs
" Follow the rules exactally, take their time, examining anything that might/could be an issue. Don't rush. Its a way of striking without walking off the jobs."
When I had business classes, this was known as "malicious obedience", doing what the boss said rather than what he meant. It would be particularly effective under a boss who can't express himself coherently, such as Donald Trump.
35
The Editorial Board has made it crystal clear that the government is not acting in the best interest of the American people. Of course, we can find precedent for that, such as slavery. I am not equating what Trump is doing with slavery, but it shows that government cannot rationally be relied upon to act for our benefit, aside from its propensity to favor the rich and powerful.
With a fervent base demanding a wall, which Trump promised, whether the Editorial Board believes politicians should keep their promises or not, he simply cannot afford to lose his base of support. In the 2018 elections, many wanted the Democrats to win the House to stop the "fascism" of the Republicans, so we have divided government and Goldilocks.
Hence, neither party can get what it wants without the help of the other, but the incentives facing each prevent a compromise where they both win. Should the incentives change such that they both can win, we can expect them to compromise then, whether 'compromise' is a dirty word or not.
7
@Emily
You wrote: " it shows that government cannot rationally be relied upon to act for our benefit, aside from its propensity to favor the rich and powerful."
I disagree, as unified Democratic government can achieve wonders. The ACA raised taxes on the rich to fund healthcare for 20 million people, while slightly reducing the deficit and improving inequality according to CBO. About $20,000 on average was transferred from the top 1% family to fund $600 in benefits for the bottom 40% family. A huge win.
Social Security and Medicare are other great examples of government transferring money to help those in need.
43
@Emily
" I am not equating what Trump is doing with slavery"
Why not? Isn't he ordering government workers to slave away for no pay?
21
I am beginning to understand how Trump managed to drive five of his companies into bankruptcy...
152
The writers assume that slowing the economy is an unintended consequence of the government shutdown. I feel rather certain that it was what Vladimir Putin intended when, as I suspect, he ordered Trump to take this action. Further, as former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul and others have suggested, Putin would have wanted to undermine Americans' faith in their own government and to have sown confusion. I firmly believe that Britain's Brexit was another Putin Project that is paying huge dividends. Are we really so helpless that we cannot defend ourselves from the Kremlin kleptocracy? DON'T ANSWER THAT!
139
In addition to the more immediate effects noted from the shutdown, it appears to be a setup for future disasters.
For instance, the U.S. Forest Service, BLM, and probably the National Parks use winter time to prepare for fire season ahead. Prevention activities, such as burning brush piles (which were stacked in the Fall;) setting off control burns; working with local communities to make their towns “fire wise;” and creating vital strategic plans for the coming fire season, are at a standstill.
Hiring activities for the next season must be at a standstill. Fire crew and management positions need to be advertised, personnel interviewed, hired, and eventually trained. Inventories need restocking, current research projects continued, liaisons with State and other Federal agencies negotiated, contracts finalized, etc.
Many Americans depend upon these agencies to protect our cities, towns, and very lives. And many citizens and community organizations are engaged in active discussions with them on finding the best ways to do that. Having this shutdown with another fire season approaching, with many areas already declared in various stages of drought, is frightening.
For sure, nobody is out there raking the forests either!
64
Trump is a true narcissist who is willing to destroy the US rather than lose his base. But none of that explains why senate republicans refuse to act. Their complicity must mean they afraid - the question is - of what?
94
The economic impact of the furloughs is greatly exaggerated. Just another Buzzfeed Buzzkill.
1
"President Trump, you surely could not have wanted your partial government shutdown, your tariffs, your corporate tax cuts and your war on undocumented immigrants to hobble economic growth and to hurt farmers, factory workers, airline passengers, government contractors, retailers, Coast Guard members and F.B.I. agents."
Want to bet??? Isn't throwing the US economy back into recession just the cherry on top of all the other.great work tRump has.done for Vladimir Putin over the last two years?
13
Editorial Board - Donald Trump just doesn’t care. Only if he or his family are affected, does he care.
If Vladimir Putin or Kim from North Korea are not affected, he doesn’t care. He doesn’t care about West Virginia, California, or any other state from sea to shining sea. He doesn’t care whether airline safety, farm safety, food safety, or military safety matters. He doesn’t care if food is not on tables, if car tanks are empty, if healthcare treatments go unattended. He doesn’t care if parks are not attended to, zoos are not enjoyed, museums are dark.
Donald Trump cares about one thing - what personally makes Donald Trump happy. Nothing else matters. And so - pick up the pieces folks. You’re on your own.
10
For nearly a year in 2016, Spain did not have a fully functioning government. In that time, they lead the EU in economic growth. Good thing this article is an op-ed because it most assuredly does not pass muster as news.
2
This whole article is premised on the idea that the President of the United States is supposed to serve for the good of all Americans.
The current occupant of the Oval Office has two objectives.
Destroy the United States ... for it is easier for kleptocrats to take all the wealth of an economy which is in shambles when compared to a strong healthy economy (as was handed to him by his predecessor.
Serve the President of the Russian Federation. Weakening, or Destroying the Western Alliances which have kept Russia in check for 70 years will please Mr. Putin ... who, along with associates have kept the Comrade-in-the-Oval afloat, and in the lifestyle to which he has grown accustomed, for decades. This is the required interest on those Russian investments.
10
The 28-days government shut down may be a fun and month long eared holiday for Trump but a matter of existential threat to 800,000 federal employees being forced to work without pay,and the larger public that remains deprived of several essential services they depend to pull on daily existence. Coming close on the heels of the economically ruinous trade war the government shut down has spelled doom for the reviving US economy and the improving job market which Trump is as incompetent to grasp as he is to run the modern government--a complex Web of functions and activities that can not be separated from each other, be it political, administrative, or the economic ones. The political economy of a country is an organic whole always interdependent and interactive with its constituent parts.
6
The partial shutdown affects less than 1% of workers but it can have profound repercussions throughout our world.
Imagine losing 1% of your body. It does not sound bad, but if the 1% is your eyes or your dominant hand or the ability to speak, your ability to function in the world would be disproportionately affected.
We are just being to see how much we need our government services and our government workers.
Open your eyes (while you still have vision).
12
“The president keeps finding ways to spoil a good thing.”
Trump inherited an economy that was lowering massive annual deficit spending, lowering unemployment and growing – a Good Thing.
Enter Trump who has a documented management history of super charging through excessive borrowing then throwing good money after bad money for “Trump Brand hype value” – a Bad Thing.
He has a documented business history of exceptionally poor risk management which has led to disastrous consequences for others – a Bad Thing.
Even before this shutdown GDP was slowing, annual deficits are approaching $1 Trillion, our national debt of $22 Trillion is rapidly growing and we have a leader with a documented history of mismanagement and shafting others – a bad Thing.
We must find a way to hold self-interested and self-enriching Elected Politicians, government officials, their staffers and operatives from both parties personally and financially liable, responsible and accountable for the lies and half-truths they have told US, their gross mismanagement of our county, our $22 T and growing national debt (107% of GDP), and our $80 T in future, unfunded liabilities they forced on US jeopardizing our economic and national security, while benefiting themselves, their staffers, their party and special interest donors.
5
With government shut down yes the US Economy loses but you are assuming that the Republicans are a logical bunch. Why is it that one doesn’t remember what they did with President Obama and his bipartisan approach on healthcare and education, they are still against the ACA and are still trying to dismantle it.
Donald Trump only cares about one item and one item only, the Donald himself. He is preoccupied by himself. He cannot see the agony and suffering of the 800,000 Federal employees who have not gotten paid. They cannot spend money in the economy and it loses approximately 4.5 Billion dollars each week. The multiplier effect is more substantial and pretty soon we would be looking at $15 Billion. Donald Trump and Mitch do talk a good talk about caring for the common man, but in reality they are using the poor Federal employees as Guinea pigs. People both Republicans and Democrats should send in their concerns to the President to open the government Now!
5
@Wizarat
This multiplier effect is interesting. If it goes both ways, someone could make a fortune!
There is a LOT of agony and suffering in the world. But the hardship on our 800K federal employees having to wait for their paychecks is microcsopic, in comparison. In comparison to ROUTINE struggles of a typical American (based on median, not mean, annual income, about 30K/year), the current hardships on their wealthier, fellow citizens are pretty modest. The real life of most Americans is under the radar. They don't vote, or read NYT or leave a cash paper trail.
6
@carl bumba
Can't agree more, just make sure to let your Representative know to support the Progressives who are trying to help the working poor along with the less fortunate amongst us.
2
We have moved past the point where there are any winners or losers possible in this fight. The responsible side is the side that capitulates first.
1
Trump was probably right when he said he could shoot someone down on Fifth Avenue get away with it.
But disrupting the Super Bowl with his shutdown is another thing.
I look for him to substantially cave on the Wall and end the shutdown well before that happens.
5
Despite Trump’s obvious, buffoonery and criminality, the party of plutocrats the GOP supports him because he enriched their present with tax cuts and future with conservative judges to protect their ability to buy elections. However, Trump and his nefarious puppeteers of Murdoch and Putin may cause the beginning of the end of the concubines of their plutocrats when their collusion is exposed for all to see.
3
Since so much of the ‘gumint is shut down, why should I pay for something that is not working? I think I will redo my income tax withholding.
Here's how the shut down will end. The markets are closed until Tuesday, expect a sharp downturn into having them tank. Deep throat told Woodward and Bernstein to "Follow the money," James Carville said " Its the economy stupid." Treasury Secretary Steve Mnunchin has already admitted he does not know how the IRS will handle income tax and returns this year. So, in the short run, we will be titillated by stories of Trump's peccadilloes. But already there are stories of garage sales to raise money to pay bills. Americans are already squeamish about the worth of their 401 Ks. Foreign investors in light of the longest shut down in the nation's history and how they have been treated by the Trump administration will seek other agreement for goods and services. Do we really expect them to look at our record on trade agreements and tariffs to treat us the same? The Trump administration had offended our NATO partners, Chinese holders of our debt; even the Japanese must be wary.
So I will watch the hearings next week, and keep an eye on the stock market, and I expect you will also.
I really feel sorry for those who thought that public service was a higher calling and the poor passengers passing through TSA and having their airliners controlled by the ATC. Those employees are already very upset. I just hope there is not an aircraft incident.
4
Along with the "invisible hand" we now have an invisible finger given to a multitude of market participants.
It would be helpful if the NYT printed a list of senators and reps names and how to reach them, maybe not all but 'key' ones. Know you can find this information on line but not easy for all to do. It is public information so would hope no problem in doing so. This shutdown was ridiculous at the start and now is doing a lot of damage to people who do not deserve this treatment by Trump, McConnell and the worth nothing Republicans.
3
Not really. It is clear people want a centralized world government. The U.N. is waiting for control. Give control of New York CIty and California to the U.N. then let the federal government govern the 50 others. Then close down the Military bases, build the wall around NYC
It is presumptuous to address an editorial to Trump. He may not read it. One of his sycophants may read it and tell him about it. His official position is that the NY Times publishes fake news.
Yet he may respond indirectly. Perhaps he will declare a national emergency and fund the Wall through an executive order. This is what Obama did when the Congress failed to approve amnesty for Dreamers. He simply granted amnesty by executive action.
At the time, I thought that this was a terrible decision. Obama would not be present forever. If he can overrule Congress by executive action, why not Trump?
Of course, declaring a national emergency and opening the government might not be constitutional.
But from Trump's viewpoint it is better to be impeached because he took a political position on the Wall than to be impeached for some act demonstrating personal corruption. He perhaps wants to be regarded as a martyr who fought for the Wall.
Liberals have a complicated task. They do not win by contributing to further partisanship.
It is already the case that a large percentage of Americans see the NY Times as fake news. They need to avoid an outcome in which a substantial fraction of Americans believe that the government itself is fake.
We need a healthy Republican party after Trump is gone. A one party state with only one viable choice on the ballot is not an acceptable outcome.
Democracy requires disagreement to function. Some liberals seem to have forgotten that.
Yes, Trump and McConnell are playing a political stunt with America. Do they care? Nope. They still get paid and their families are fine. They lie to cover themselves and the state TV network, Fox, lies to cover them too. They just blame everything on the Democrats. Will GOP donors call off this insanity and force McConnell to deal? Will it take a complete shutdown of the nation’s airlines? Who knows?
3
"President Trump, you could not have wanted your partial government shutdown, your tariffs, your corporate tax cuts and your war on undocumented immigrants to hobble economic growth, and hurt farmers, factory workers, airline passengers, government contractors, retailers, Coast Guard members and F.B.I. agents." Mr. Trump would not have imposed any of the above mentioned hardships if he cared even one iota about anything except his own narcissistic self. This is a man whose immigration policies ripped babies out of the arms of their mothers. This is a man who supports white nationalists. This is a man who acts before considering any of the consequences. He belongs to a Party which lost its soul many years ago. This isn't even about greed. It is about shoring up Trump's base and fulfilling a pseudo promise he made to his supporters that Mexico would build his glorious monument to his ego. So now thousands of people are having to endure this disgraceful penury in an attempt to blackmail Democrats into giving him his wall. We are in deep trouble as the shutdown continues.
5
If I am paying union dues to the AFGE Union, why isnt the Union doing anything to help me financially while my Govt paycheck is delayed?
The AFGE is taking my union dues and donating them to the DNC for political purposes that run counter to MY well being.
Hugo,
At this moment you may feel like a victim, but in the big picture of your career, it is that very UNION that has succeeded in helping you enjoy your lifestyle, benefits, and retirement. Collective and successful bargaining has a price, but it has produced the Middle Class and worker protections and rights. Hang in there.
1
@Wherever Hugo
Quit the union and encourage others to do the same. Then...bargain for your pay and working conditions with Donald Trump himself, by our little lonesome.
He may or may not have wanted to hurt the many categories of people and businesses and institutions and good faith in government (well I take back that last one, he clearly want to wreck whatever faith people have in government, in which task he is aided and abetted by the Trumpublican Party.)
But I guarantee you one thing: he was, is and always will be absolutely indifferent to the suffering of others. This cruel, transactional narcissist cares only about one person, himself.
7
Nobel laureate economists have argued against the inclusion of government spending in GDP figures, and for good reason: the government can simply spend money it doesn't have (money either borrowed via Treasury paper or created out of whole cloth by the Federal Reserve) in order to goose official statistics.
The Trump Shutdown is just another example of proof that the economy should exclude government spending from measurements of the economy.
3
Once upon a time, we had Trade Unions, workers organized around a particular trade skill that was in high demand by capitalist factory owners. the Union negotiated very successfully for benefits and wages...and has proven to be very important in the Industrial economy.
TSA airport workers, to put it bluntly, produce Nothing, they work for the people, many of those people are members of productive trade unions. The people are NOT negotiating with the TSA Union. Instead the Union Leadership, often ranking members of one Political machine or another, are simply skimming union dues out of taxpayer funded paychecks to use for Political purposes that do NOT benefit the membership.
The American Federation of Govt Employees is doing little to nothing to help out its membership financially during these times when they are furloughed, instead AFGE leadership has chosen to ABUSE the membership as a political tool to support a narrow DNC agenda.
1
If the shutdown is so bad economically, provide the money for the wall (or fence or barrier) - it amounts to about 1/10th of 1% of the budget while the shutdown costs the economy multiples of wall costs. 800,000 out of work over 1/10th of 1 %.
1
If a billionaire is asked to pay $5000,000 paying ransom it is the same proportion to the extortionist, it is a non-starter as such.
4
@Chris
Two questions:
1. Why now? Trump has been talking about his wall since before the 2016 election. He had two years of a Republican controlled Congress to get wall money from. Why has he waited until now to get wall money, sparking a showdown with newly in-charge House Democrats who have no interest in funding Trump's stupid wall?
2. Then what? Coming off their 2018 midterm success, Democrats have a mandate to stand up to Trump's excesses. If they don't, if they instead cave to Trump and give him his wall money to end the shutdown, what's next? What else will Mr. "Art of the Deal" be willing to shut down the government over?
9
@Will Eigo Then democrats in Congress will continue to sacrifice the 800,000 federal workers for what they perceive as a principle.
what will happen if this t fiasco is still going on when the super bowl takes its part of the national media/travel? The airlines and FAA can barely handle things now as people shortages arise in various parts of the air travel world. At some point people in the system are going to run out of capability. Does it continue beyond safe operation? I pray not.
5
This week we experienced 3 small earthquakes. Maryland had a 4.6 earthquake. USGS and JPL were closed. What if there had been a large earthquake. We are all at risk and employees need to be in their jobs and paid.
10
@Rebecca
I think the earthquake early warning systems on the Northwest Coast are now disabled because of lack of funding and/or federal personnel.
4
If we jettison the 320,000 employees who represent excessive government, then adjust taxes accordingly, the economy will be just fine.
2
@From Where I Sit
As the Editorial Board's Opinion piece clearly shows, the economy would do even far better if just one more employee were jettisoned, the one now in the White House.
And generate another Enron style fiasco! Great idea!
@From Where I Sit
That was exactly the kind of thinking in fashion in the 1920's, and it led to what we now call the Great Depression. Only the Second World War got governments spending again (not that starting a war is an option today, Trump not being the only "leader" stupid and obtuse enough to fire off nuclear missiles). Firing 320,000 people wouldn't be disastrous only for them but for everyone.
Thanks for this summary of the consequences of some of the economic mayhem initiated by Mr Trump, which the subservient Republican Senate has apparently supported. Many of us elsewhere on the planet continue to be puzzled at these events, which of course have international implications. We used to think that the US democracy was strong because of the much vaunted ‘checks and balances’; many of us now realise that was a convenient piece of mythology, exposed by the unilateral actions of a President, apparently with neither check nor balance in effect.
29
The checks and balances you expressed as part of the strength of the US is based on the political parties operating as gatekeepers against cranks like Trump getting the party presidential nominations. Once upon a time, 50 years ago and before, party conventions chose the candidates, not delegates chosen by party favor. Once the smoke filled back rooms were eliminated, we became susceptible to disreputable candidates such as Trump. We were just lucky his copy has not shown up before. The Electoral College was written into the Constitution to avoid mistakes like Trump. The problem is it was destroyed as a useful gatekeeper by the demise of the back rooms that selected the electoral voters by standing and not political favor.
5
@Barry Kissane
I wouldn't say a "mythology". Trump is extra-ordinary - and these are extraordinary times; there is such stratification of opportunity in the country. But it's true that there isn't really a check or balance to our, in effect, fouth branch of government -
mainstream media.
1
Just imagine, one man could set off a worldwide depression from the US to Europe to Asia. And, unlike the Great Depression, this one would bear that man's name for all of remaining history, the Trump Depression. Finally removed from office, he can then claim the economy crashed without him.
36
Not a stretch to believe. He appears to be trying to make the most impact he possibly can, good or bad, doesn’t matter...and have his name associated with it for posterity. A true sociopath.
1
The stock market is doing well. It seems that investors think that there is no problem.
1
@Tony: I think you misunderstand what the stock market reflects. Investors don't think "there's no problem"; they think that future corporate earnings will be higher. Those are two very different things.
3
@Tony Mendoza The market is up one day and down the next. That's not "doing well".
2
@Tony Mendoza My 401K is down over 100,000 dollars since trump came into office.
2
"Slow down" doesn't begin to equate the shutdown. This self-inflicted damage can be long lasting to many who are not directly employed by the government. To vote and approve backpay doesn't help the contractors who are doing the same work as the employees.
Smart companies have already reached out to offer reliefs but they are not free. Why, if workers have to borrow to make ends meet, they are going to pay interest they normally would not incur.
Then there are the supporting casts. Restaurants, coffee shops and food shops. Already, they might not be too profitable. Any drop of business impacts their cashflow in a major way. The ripple goes far and wide.
Trump's shutdown will damage the economy the prior admin tried so hard to repair.
26
It all demonstrates just how much government intrudes into so many parts of our lives.
The employees more than likely will get their back pay. The half million contractors that work for the government probably won't.
18
"... a farmer in Minnesota decided not to plant another 10 acres of wheat because she couldn’t finance it." Whaaat?
The key word here is "another" 10 acres.... This would be a BIG farm. She would be an agribusiness-woman (or CEO), not a farmer. Farm subsidies are generally by the acre. Small farms (in terms of acres, yields, or revenue) are what non-farmers think of as farms. A farm that is large enough to benefit from these subsidies (i.e. in the hundreds of acres, at least) would likely feel little pain from ten less acres from their wheat crop. 86% of American farmland (i.e. acreage) have crops on it insured by the federal government (the vast majority in corn, soybean, wheat or cotton). But 86% of American farmers sure don't get crop insurance! It's for the mega-farms... like in Iowa (where presidents and Farm Bills are made.) Few farmers where I live get farm subsidies (or would freely admit it if they did). This is not just out of principle - it's economics. I, for one, am not going to fill out a folder full of paperwork and take an extension course for a $4/acre subsidy. I've noticed that participation rates for these programs - in actual numbers - is very hard to ascertain. Farm Bill data is most obtuse
2
If shutting-down the government slows the economy shouldn't Democrats support this as a way to fight climate-change? Every climate-change-fighting scenario envisions reduced economic activity, a shut-down should be what they want.
@Ronald B. Duke I guess that must be why the green energy sector is booming.
The world these days is filled with tipping points but the one I'm most looking forward to is when the probability of Trump's impeachment reaches the point beyond which the US/World economies rejoice.
We're currently in a holding pattern, not quite sure of what's the POTUS's future. Once that is certain, the economic outlook will explode upward. What will that final trigger be? I'm sure there's a market taking bets.
18
Trump has only so much power that the Republican-controlled Senate gives him. I blame them more than Trump.
61
@Debbie
It's a chicken or the egg scenario. If Trump was willing to sign legislation, I'm sure the Senate would vote on it. As it stands now, McConnell currently works for the White House, not the Senate. So much for our checks-and-balances government. If we don't do something about these obstructionist Republicans in 2020, we don't deserve this democracy.
9
Partial shut down (PSD) has hardly made a dent in the economy or the country outside the coastal areas of the country. In fact this week ending today has been on the positive side on the stock market for whatever reason. The shut down and the Washington squabbles are good drama for the press but it does not affect the rest of the country. No one is traveling less or spending less because of the PSD. Reporting for my neighborhood and my city, I have not seen any difference between when the government was open for business and today with the PSD.
Less than 1% of the country is affected temporarily due to the PSD and they will all get back pay even those who did not have to report to work during the shut down over a power struggle between the legislative branch and the executive branch of the government. Each one has their own side and the press is making a mountain out of a molehill of the PSD. I don't think the economy has slowed down a bit, it is as stable as the day D.J. Trump was elected fair and square on election day November 2016.
The press keeps ways to malign and spoil the presidency of Trump and he keeps surprising us all in surviving in the white house (WH) and firing his bazooka at whoever tries to cross him or antagonizes him. His canceling the Pelosi travel plan is classic No president in US history who never held an elected office prior to entering the WH has confronted such formidable opposition and left standing. Wonder what his secret is. I suspect his HDL.
4
@Girish Kotwal
People are working for free is why you have not noticed a difference.
One of the most notable is the TSA and ATC. If they walked off the job tomorrow, the economy would come screeching to a halt as travelers and business people could not get where they are going, cargo could not be shipped, even your man Trump could not fly as there would be no air traffic controllers to keep him safe. I'm sure he has never gone thru the TSA in his life but no ATC would affect his travel.
He was a failing business man when NBC rescued him and gave him his own show . Most likely where you fell in love with him as he said his trademark "you're fired" on his scripted show.
54
Mountain out of a mole hill? Corporate Finance at the S.E.C. Is shutdown. Stock offerings are not happening, which means that companies are not raising the money for growth. Growth = Jobs This is impacting large and small companies (50-300 employees).
24
@Girish Kotwal I would talk to a few farmers before you make blanket statements that only the coasts are affected. And remember, you also eat food that is not being inspected, are prone to diseases that are not being tracked, and vulnerable to a terrorist slipping through an airport due to lax TSA security.
20
>
Without government spending, and a lot of spending, we'd be fighting each other in the street for dinner, full stop.
18
The day after the election Schuemer promised to oppose everything Trump did. Both Scheumer and Pelosi are on the record as have very great concerns about illegal immigration. Of course that was when Obama was President. If Pelosi would offer Trump $4 billion the entire issue would go away. Rather than do the she prefers to leave the country. The we have all the Democrats who are so concerned about the partial shutdown that they went off to party in Puerto Rico. So how is Trump the only one at fault here? The NY Times is at least consistent. They are always in the Democrats pocket.
5
@Al Galli
So if someone holds you up at gunpoint then shoots you for not forking over your wallet, it's your fault for not giving the money? That makes no sense.
Also,
- Schumer never said what you allege.
- Having concerns about immigration doesn't mean you are in favor of a wall, which almost every expert says will have minimal impacts on illegal immigration
- The House has passed numerous funding bills to reopen the government that the Senate (because of McConnell) refuses to consider. How are they at fault when the Senate and the President refuse to do their job?
5
@Al Galli
The issue would not go away. For the past 24 months, Trump wasn't able to get money for his wall. Republicans knew, as Democrats know, it is an expensive, ineffective solution to a complex situation. Most illegal immigration is now caused by Visa overstays. A wall won't fix that. Most drugs coming from the south are coming through legal ports of entry. A wall won't stop that. The amount Trump wants is a tiny down payment for the actual cost of building, maintaining and manning the wall. In addition, the government would have to seize Americans' property through the eminent domain mechanism. It would be an environmental disaster. Most Americans are against the wall. An even larger percentage are against the shutdown. Big numbers of Americans blame Trump and Republicans. If you give in to a bully, you are setting yourself up for more closures whenever Trump doesn't get his way. I hope some smart Republicans, if there are any, can help Trump find a way out of this impasse of his own making, before he crashes and burns the country.
5
@Al Galli
Dems went to Puerto Rico for a fundraiser to help ones who are still suffering there.
Give Trump $4 billion for a wall? No, no, it would be ineffective and thus a waste. Trump just wants to win the fight. Congress should consider and debate and evaluate whether a wall is needed. Trump’s reaction is just knee-jerk because Russ and Ann didn’t like the first deal.
2
Time to band together and cut all discretionary spending to magnify these economic effects - plus we will see if Americans are still willing to sacrifice for the good of the United States of America.
This is the one power we have to change the equation of the Trump Shutdown.
3
Reading between the lines I think this person of interest is trying to find a way out. The person who can make sugar-plumbs dance before his eyes, visions of exit with massive wind at his back, will be the one who creates history. He does not want humiliation and knows it is coming. He want's money and figures he can prosper. He wants a deal and would make it if it left him with a face. Does Mueller know that? Do we?
1
Well Trump is transactional and you’re talking about big integrated systems, way too far outside the ability of Trump to comprehend. What he does not comprehend, he disbelieves. What he disbelieves is fake.
21
I take it from the sub-headline that the Editorial Board believes that President Trump is solely responsible for the government shut down. I think we can all agree that the shut down has many bad consequences.
However, Trump is asking for a very small percentage of the budget to fulfill a promise he made during his 2016 campaign. I wish more political promises could be accomplished with so little money.
I would like to understand the reasons why House Democrats felt this issue was worth shutting the government down. Aren't there more important issues the House can address better with the government back at work?
A Representative's term in only 2 years. Next year is an election year. If anything substantive is going to get done it will have to be this year. It's a real shame to see the House waste this critical time. I would rather see the House move onto the many more important issues upon which many of them ran.
5
@Ken
The House did not shut down the government. Trump did. The House did its job, by passing legislation to keep the government funded. The Senate has not done its job, which is to legislate and remind their colleague in the White House that his role presents two legitimate choices - either sign legislation, or veto it. Shutting down the government is not part of it. If he didn't get his dream wall when Republicans controlled both houses, he shouldn't expect it now when Republicans are holding fewer cards. (And it should be noted that thee was no shutdown during the previous Congress.) Throwing people out of work because you don't get what you want is the work of an authoritarian and is no way to run the country.
55
@Ken
He made a promise out of stupidity and hubris. And because he can't admit when he is wrong, we are now at this impasse. If a fully Republican Congress wouldn't give Trump money for the wall, why should the Democrats? This is a political stunt so he can show his base he's fighting Democrats on the matter. For the previous 24 months it wasn't an emergency. But now that Democrats control the House the sky is falling. And the amount he has asked for is a tiny down payment of the actual cost to build, maintain and man ther ineffective wall. The government will have to seize Americans' property through the eminent domain process. It's a lose-lose no matter how you look st it.giving in to bullies is never the right
response.
3
@Ken You seem to forget who agreed to a deal, then suddenly rejected that, then decided to use the shutdown as leverage.
Is that how you want the government administered? By Presidential fiat? Holding families financial foundations hostage? Is that how you want to see American run?
Are you sure?
2
Someone forgot to tell stock market investors. The averages have risen steadily since the shutdown began.
3
@Robert Winchester
Well hurray for them! What about the rest of us? The stock market isn't the be all and end all.
29
@Robert Winchester-
Securities prices rising despite a cacophony of bad, even terrible, news is called "climbing a wall of worry".
The current market appears to still be in a topping phase, suggesting that when the decisive break finally does come its ultimate destination will be 61.8% below the price-level where the breakdown occurs.
14
@Robert Winchester
The market only tells us the ultra rich are still doing fine. Unemployment is going up and salaries for working and middle-class folks are still stagnate, as they've been for decades, when accounting inflation. I'm getting real tired of all this winning while some people point to the market as the sole indicator of a strong economy.
14
Excellent piece! I hope he takes the time to read it!
12
@Vee
You're presuming he knows how to read. There's evidence that he doesn't read anything. It took him two days to know that Mattis' resignation letter was a major swipe. Presumably, someone in his office told him what Mattis said and told him what it meant.
2
@Vee
Give this article to someone on Fox News to read, only then will he hear about it.
And consider too the effect of the perception of what's not happening because of Trump's shutdown: I drove someone to the Social Security office yesterday: she named the impossibly long lines on Trump and the Republicans. When today the office at the local WIC center wouldn't answer the call of someone who missed her appointment and was running out of baby formula, she assumed it was because of Trump's shutdown. People like me, a frequent flyer, decided not to book a flight to and hotel in Cincinnatti rather than deal with the TSA's short staff. I made a donation to the Coast Guard's Mutual Assistance fund because I know there are Coasties who will need money to pay their bills soon, and they will be cursing out the Republicans as they scrimp and worry. Republicans thought they took a licking in the midterms? Just wait till 2020 when the middle class and poor get their revenge.
55
Since the shutdown, federal employees are known in this paper almost exclusively as federal "workers". This may fool management, near-management and skilled workers, but unskilled laborers, most service industry workers and all other Americans wishing they could have a federal job would probably not be fooled by this. Most federal employees are great, hard-working and needed, for the most part. But this paper, I think, is using their current hardships (which, in comparison to routine struggles of many non-federal workers, is fairly minor) to advance their own political agenda, which seems to protect their comfortable (though probably well-earned) position in society.
2
@carl bumba
The newspapers also usually neglect to say that employees likely will get back pay once the shutdown is over. The half million federal contractors won't. I guess Trump really is operating the country like one of his businesses.
8
@Nova yos Galan
Thanks. I suspect contractors will get paid for any actual work they do during this period. Some contactors may loose timely jobs they were awarded. But most federal contractors probably have a little cushion, I'd imagine. We've heard all about some of those quasi-openly bided contracts. It's not like taking food from an orphanage.
2
Trump failed at every business he started, even the casino. His dad had to give him an illegal loan of 350 million dollars to save the casino and his son managed to ruin it anyway. I could list all of Trump's business failures from his cruise line to his airline, his mortgage company to his travel agencies, but the word count would go over the limit. He failed as a businessman over and over. He finally got a scripted "reality" show where all he had to do is read the words, "You're fired," off a piece of paper. When he ran for president he was reduced to renting his name to hotels and apartment buildings and borrowing money so he could continue his lavish lifestyle.
He's always been a greedy man living on someone else's money. His father and the Russian oligarchs won't be around to bail out the United States when Trump destroys the business of government like he ruined all of his businesses.
174
@Linda said "Trump failed at every business he started, even the casino."
Actually, he went BANKRUPT 4 times over casinos.
It takes real talent to go bankrupt when you are operating a money machine ... er ... casino.
It take extra special talent to do that FOUR times. That means you learn ZERO from bankruptcies one, two and three.
But that is who Delusional Donnie is, a pigheaded egotist who thinks he knows better than everyone else, and who thinks that he never is responsible for any failure. His failures are ALWAYS the responsibility of other people. Just ask him.
And here we are, with a BIG, FAT public failure for which Delusional Donnie has already taken 100% responsibility, on live reality tv, direct from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Lordy, there are tapes.
6
@Linda For sure those oligarchs won't be around to bail out the US when Trump's "business acumen" fails our country miserably, but maybe some of those oligarchs will be Trump's "cellies" at the federal prison in which he resides after his term is over. Seems the least he could expect from his long-time Russian friends and partners-in-crime.
1
Rational is not a word I would ever expect to associate with “I go with my gut” Trump.
27
Shut down the government, ultimately you shut down the economy. It depends on the rule of law to function, government the ultimate guarantor, referee and policeman. Without it, rule of law is superseded by mob rule; rule of the strongest, the most vicious, violent and unscrupulous — and anarchy.
Of course, this suits Trump just fine. He fears rule of law like the plague, why he will weaken it — and its enforcers — as often and as much as he possibly can.
22
Few laws broken in the US escape being deemed a “felony”,
or so it seems. Elected officials are trusted to run the government, not shut it down. Shutting it down should be a felony! Penalty: Bar the doors.
9
Here’s that opportunity for bipartisan legislation—but McConnell won’t allow a vote not approved by Dullard J Trump.
Trump, Hannity, and Coulter seek to blame Schumer and Pelosi, but polls show it won’t stick—Trump and McConnell own this shutdown, and they can’t spin it.
58
What one has to understand about Donnie "Boy"
Trumpty Dumpty is that he doesn't care.
He doesn’t care that Federal workers can’t pay their mortgages, their rents, or their bills. He doesn’t care that they have to go to food banks to feed their families. He doesn’t care that many small farmers will likely go bankrupt, thanks to his policies. He doesn’t care that airlines and airport businesses are losing money that they’ll never make back.
He doesn’t care because he’s a selfish, self-centered, pathetic excuse for a human being who cares only for himself. When his policies start to hurt him, then he’ll care. But only as far as modifying those policies to relieve HIMSELF of pain.
78
In a democracy, you accept the will of the majority and you compromise. The majority want border security but don't want a wall. Only Trump insists on a fully funded wall and is holding government employee's as hostage to get his way. This is not how democracy works. But then again, we have a President that want's to remake American into a country where he is king.
36
I don't understand. Trump says he knows everything about everything and when he doesn't he knows nothing. Oh that's right. Hillary Clinton and President Obama are to blame and farmers and coal miners or the tooth fairy failed to leave a dollar under the pillow or. . .
9
$467M tax benefit for GS for one quarter!? Wow, talk about (gov't) revenue the U.S. will never see. That's obscene.
14
@David-
House Speaker Ryan and Majority Leader McConnell gave away the store — and sold you down the river. They transferred the burden of paying for the uber rich’s tax cut to you, your children, your grandchildren and your great-grandchildren — the entire burden. It’s the greatest wealth redistribution in American history from the very political party whose conservative economic ideology deplores wealth redistribution through taxation — from rich to poor. From poor, working-poor, lower and upper middle-class to the very rich, however, they’re fine with it. ‘Strip’em bare!
34
@David....It's known as "Looting the Treasury," something that happens every time a Republican gets into the White House.
The shutdown is an entirely consistent part of the far-right ideology which Trump has embraced. The bitter hatred of Federal employees has been a key aspect of Republican "doctrine" for decades. Recently, people have commented on the seeming lack of compassion for unpaid Federal workers but anyone who has been paying attention knows that Republicans have always believed that Federal workers (excepting those in uniform) are lazy, overpaid and doing "useless" work for a "bloated" government. No government employee in America should ever vote for any Republican again. My own 5-years of Federal employment taught me that lesson 35 years ago.
104
@Eroom
You forgot to mention one group of Federal "workers," i.e., the Republicans in Congress who continue to receive a government welfare check for $174,000 minimum a year and benefits -- and for the rest of their lives when they retire -- for doing virtually nothing. They are the real "bloat" in the government.
31
@Eroom
You're right. And they love that food stamp recipients are hurting, along with other social safety net beneficiaries.
And I'm sure they love the idea of stealing any possible aid to Puerto Rico and California for disaster relief.
Victims to blame aplenty!
8
Our fate will not be different than the Trump's big investment plans in his business history.
God Help us...….
9
He is trying to take out the government.
16
Buy low, sell high. Trump motivated by self-interest again.
3
Agribusiness-men, not farmers, depend on federal subsidies. Sure, missile factory workers might be hurt be this shutdown, too. Most factory workers, on the other hand, have little to lose and more to gain by this shutdown... just ask them. The spin.
NYT just had an article about free meals and other assistance provided to unpaid federal employees (known here only as "workers") by restaurants, banks and airports! These three examples were given without the slightest note of humor. Yes, our tax money makes many people preferred customers at such places.... These businesses are probably writing it all off on their taxes as charitable gifts - even the salaries paid for security needed to keep the real food pantry folks from getting some, too.
1
The country, indeed the whole bloody world, is coming undone because of Trump and his GOP enablers. And apparently because he wanted to put something with his name on it in Moscow. At this point, it'd be cheaper to give him the $300 million to go away.
19
There are a lot of comments below saying that the government shutdown is not bad enough to truly effect the economy. These readers seem to have missed huge chunks of the editorial which pointed to a slew of Trump policies that altogether amount to a significant drag on the economy. Trump is throwing sand in the gears left and right. Add those to the global factors mentioned (China, Germany) and we have the makings for a serious slowdown to develop.
To those who laugh this partial shutdown off, I bet you'd quickly change your tune if this were a REAL government shutdown that would end ALL government services. You really think you don't depend on government?
32
Regarding the current government shutdown over the “wall” – Let’s be totally frank. At the end of the day, there are those in Congress who genuinely DO want border security, and those who really DON'T want border security...no matter what they say publicly. To the latter, the current government impasse is just a ploy to keep the illegal immigration/border-crossing problem going on indefinitely, i.e., "business as usual"…with their ultimate goal being OPEN BORDERS, plain & simple (although they'd never admit to that openly).
And yes, many of the same legislators (mostly DEMS) who SAY they want "cost-effective border security" but NOT a "wall" are the same ones who staunchly defend "sanctuary cities" (in violation of federal law) and "catch & release" at the border…both of which serve as a magnet…an incentive…for people to continually “game” and exploit the system at U.S. taxpayer expense. This surely is NOT “comprehensive border security”.
Our extremely porous southern border is a gateway for hideous drug & human trafficking, gang activity and violent crime…including MURDER…which poison our neighborhoods, schools and our vulnerable youth.
Common sense dictates that “comprehensive border security" is only as good as its weakest link...whether it is physical or legal in nature. An effective physical "barrier" (along with the essential legal reforms to discourage further abuse) will significantly mitigate the problem and easily pay for itself over time.
2
@Vcliburn
Why did 45 wait 2 years to address this emergency - his party controlled both houses and didn't make it a priority.
What changed?
25
@Vcliburn,
Most illegal immigrants overstay their visas and legally entered as tourists. The group that stays the most are Asians, not Mexicans or Central Americans. Most drugs enter in trucks and planes at under-outfitted border crossings and increasingly via UPS or China Post. None of this would be stopped by a wall.
20
@Karen Vaughan I agree with you 100%...none of those specific things that you mentioned, i.e., “legal” visa overstays, underequipped ports of entry, etc., would be stopped by a "physical barrier", per se. But Karen, it’s not a question of “either/or”, which one is “worse”, or one part of the problem vs. another…but BOTH. I’m not suggesting that you’re doing this, but we shouldn’t focus just on ONE side of the problem in order to divert attention away from another aspect of the same problem that’s staring us right in the face. To be sure, it’s a multi-faceted problem.
To reiterate, our extremely porous southern border is indeed a gateway for hideous drug & human trafficking, gang activity and violent crime…including MURDER…which are poisoning our neighborhoods, schools and our vulnerable youth. An effective physical barrier (along with the necessary changes in our immigration & asylum laws) will greatly mitigate this problem and easily pay for itself over time…Just my humble opinion.
1
Apparently Nancy Pelosi and Democrats are winning the battle for public opinion. At least for now. My fear is that Democrats will at some point shoot themselves in the foot, and I think that may happen sooner than later. To keep public opinion on their side, Democrats need to constantly remind people that they do have a plan for border security and tell the details of that plan. They need to remind people, over and over, that what they want is to pass a bill to fund the government and THEN have the debate about border security. I don't hear either of those much any more.
13
@RF
The only thing Democrats need to do to retain my support is remind me that Republicans do not take governing seriously, but are in it for the perks and the money.
16
@RF - I've seen the plan to abolish ICE. I've seen their plan for amnesty. I've seen their demand to release anyone who drags their kids across the border into the US.
What I haven't seen is any plan for border security. No plan to return ANYONE who has crossed illegally to their country of origin.
I hold Pelosi and Schumer responsible for the shutdown. 0.1% of the federal budget has the whole government shut down. It has cost that much already.
2
@Jim The Democrat's plan for border security is to beef up those surveillance methods which work better and cost less than a physical wall. The second part of the plan is to pass legislation to reopen the government and to negotiate/debate border security after the government is reopened. Now you know. By the way, border crossing have been dropping for years and have been at an all time low for the past couple of years.
26
If Trump gets his wall it means that whatever the issue is, he has the support of his party and base to get what he wants. For example, if he wants to defund ObamaCare, he can, and Congress will have nothing to say about it.
8
A superb, concise précis of the irreparable damage the Donald Trump presidency is doing to America.
My question is: “Where is Congress?”, followed by: “Do they care?”
The national economy is much like the human body: everything has a function and when something hurts or isn’t working properly, that means something is wrong. Most people would consult a doctor or a specialist to find out what ails them. If a foot hurts it doesn’t affect an eye; but all the same, that bad foot, if left untended, can cause more damage in the future that will affect the entire body.
This government work stoppage is the president’s erector set. He’s flummoxed and can’t figure out which piece logically comes next so he can continue to build on the structure. But having lost interest in the project because it’s not easy, like a child, he’s walked away from it.
“Let someone else worry about it. I’m bored.”
30
Sadly, Trump understands none of this logic.
He sees the stock market going up, and he is happy with the way things are.
But there is only so much the rubber band will stretch before it breaks.
8
The Trump shutdown can be undone by at least four more Republican Senators agreeing to fund the government and negotiating border security issues later. Trump and the Republicans own this mess and no one should be afraid to say so.
117
@DSS
Actually, I think it's worse than that. I think there are enough votes and McConnell is refusing to bring it to the floor on purpose.
There is no evil worse than a Democrat, didn't you know?
4
@DSS
4 Republicans will agree to fund and Mitch will allow a vote?
Until enough businesses and people like the ones mentioned here start calling and yelling at their Republican senators the shutdown will likely continue. There is a clear-cut constitutional solution to Donald Trump's autocratic executive lockout of his and our employees that doesn't require a $5.7 billion ransom. It's to do what they were elected for--to act as a "check and balance" to Trump's outrageous actions and pass a veto-proof budget without any funding for his wall. #MakeDemocracyWorkAgain
39
Whenever there is less government activity -
there is more money in circulation,
we enjoy more freedom for the citizen,
and the people who hate the country stew and stress even more than they were already.
It's truly a win-win.
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@L'osservatore
I hope you are kidding: https://www.sec.gov/spotlight/sec-employees/psrw50ways.pdf . That list of ways the government helps is likely incomplete, but without it win-win is not at all likely.
14
While everything you say is true, Trump's value system is predicated on a perception of winning or losing as it pertains to his gargantuan ego. In his mind, it is not about the economy, which he doesn't understand, but more about machismo and whether macho-man is perceived as a winner when the impasse ends. Meanwhile, the economy will continue to suffer along with hundreds of thousands of federal employee while his main concern is his political image.
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@Whole Grains
Doh! Only a fraction - 800K people - are missing their checks. Any with actual memory and reasoning ability have put money aside for these predictable circumstances.
@L'osservatore The starting pay for TSA workers in Washington DC is 23,000 dollars. Try setting aside a few months salary when you live and work in an expensive city and have an important job that pays barely above minimum wage.
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@Linda
You are right of course but offering rational arguments to Trump voters is a lost cause.
20
None of these policies are irrational if you look at them as beneficial to Putin's aims. Why ignore that fact?
133
Save your breath Editorial Board. This president, and most of those in the Senate, are unable to see that far ahead. This short-sighted administration does not have the well-being of the people on their mind.
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Unlike the editorial board, I've done some actual research on delay costs. Which is what *every* shutdown is, a delay in delivering funds, rather than a loss of funding.
I was called in in the past to counter some of these idiotic news reports (is that redundant?) of the cost to stuff like port activity when hurricanes hit, and similar events. What really happens is that work occurs are a later a date. A queue is developed that is worked down. There are some buffers as activity flows downstream.
The threshold for number of days of delay it takes to have a significant, permanent effect on the entire US economy would be quite large. To date, the shutdown *has not* significantly affected transfer payments, the bulk of the money the federal government pumps into the economy. Some grant programs have been on hiatus, and federal workers are up to a one-paycheck delay, soon to be two.
In DC, where I live, the federal workers furloughed--remember, it's a *partial* shutdown, and adjective the NYTimes conveniently misplaces when it writes about this--represents a tiny percentage of the overall workforce. Many federal agencies are operating normally because they are funded differently.
My back of the envelope math suggests that we are about to enter the pain point when funding delays will start leaving scars. In addition, having the entire month of January shutdown will likely weigh on the public psyche, and consumer sentiment.
8
On the whoe, this piece made sense. One thing bothered me: 'customers don't appreciate being gouge', shich apparently means that the seller is making a hefty profit. Actually when I buy something, I don't think about whether the seller is making a big profit, selling at a loss or someting in-between. I buy it because it's what I want & the price is right for me. Is that unusual?
2
@Jenifer Wolf
No, Jenifer, you aren't unusual, but your logic only works when you are buying something you have the luxury of not buying if you decide it isn't worth it. If the item in question is essential for your continued existence - or that of your business - then you have to decide what else you can cut, or if you can get by on less. It's the same concept as when a billionaire buys a patent for a safe, common, reliable, inexpensive drug that has been in production for decades and hike the price 1000%... Those customers REALLY don't appreciate being gouged, but they need to have access to the medication and they KNOW that the seller is now making a huge profit at their expense.
13
Trump and so many in the GOP are nihilists. They destroy things and have no plan for what comes next. They had no plan for Obamacare had they been able to repeal it, Trump has no actual trade plan, same with the shutdown. They bleat about libertarianism but can't even muster some actual thinking around that weak notion.
The nihilism began with one of the worst Americans ever to hold high public office, Newt Gingrich.
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@Nancy
Gingrich is oersonally responsible for the closest we recently came to a budget surplus during his leadership of the House.
You would be a better student of history to catch his lectures.
1
@L'osservatore
There's more to history than Dr. Gingrich long tales. The budget surplus of the Clinton administration were as a result of the budget rules of the Bush 41 administration, the PAYGO system, Clinton and the economy. Newt has been singing the song that he was the champion of bipartisanship in the budget surpluses of the late 1990s--but his ideology and cronyism got in the way as he made a mockery of the House of Representatives and any hopes of a responsible solution to the aging of the baby boom generation. His delusions of grandeur are responsible for Trump's desire for ownership of the current shutdown.
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@L'osservatore Newt was lucky to have inherited the 'PayGo' system from Bush I and he had Bill Clinton, a moderate, in the White House and most importantly the microprocessor/software/internet revolution was creating billions of dollars in tax revenues to reduce the deficit. That combination of events isn't likely to repeat any time soon and Newt doesn't deserve credit for being in office at the 'right time'.
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Shrink Government to the size where one can drown it in a bathtub. The most horrible words any American could ever hear, "I'm from the government, and I'm here to help". Small government, low tax, low regulation. Each American standing on their own two feet, creatively improving our economy.
We are living the Conservative Dream.
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@gratis
I read that in the Victorian era, members of Parliament were not paid a salary. That would certainly be one way to shrink government.
6
@gratis: not sure if you're being sarcastic or you actually believe your statements, but if you ARE a true believer, get back to us about how Rocky Mountain National Park and Mesa Verde National Monument look once the shutdown is over.
@gratis; you may be living a Conservative Dream, but you will also die a cruel death as you stand alone in a polluted environment no one can do anything about or a health care system that you have no money to access.
I think that Trump's understanding of the Economy only goes so far as the stock markets. And with the exception of a couple of days earlier in the month, the markets have been going up up up...as of this moment, the Dow is up over 200 points so far today. So in Trump's mind, everything is fine and dandy. He will NEVER understand the damage he's caused. Never.
20
Don’t forget to call out Republicans and Mitch. The senate had/has the votes to pass and override Trump.
The constitution says Senate is independent of Executive. But Mitch isn’t doing his job.
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@APMinPDX-Let's look at McConnell's complicity. McConnell is a hard-line opponent of campaign finance and election reforms, which makes sense when you look at the money he's received from Russia. His favorability ratings with Kentucky constituents hovers around 30%. As Kentucky ranks second most dependent state on federal dollars--his refusal to even allow the House funding measure to have a hearing is cruel for Kentuckians and for the country.
https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2017/12/15/putins-proxies-helped-funnel-millions-gop-campaigns
http://www.wkyufm.org/post/kentucky-second-most-dependent-state-federal-money#stream
10
A good economic leader inheriting a booming economy* combined with record income inequality and an unsustainable budget deficit should really focus primarily on one thing: Raising taxes on the rich.
What is the best way to do this, to limit slowing the economy (the inevitable result in the short-run of lowering the deficit?)
Well, the rich get more of their income from investments (capital, as opposed to wages). This means the key is to treat capital gains and dividends as ordinary income for that group. The top 1% get about $300 billion/year in such "tax expenditures" (loopholes).
Once you eliminate the tax expenditures for them, raise the marginal income tax rates (say 50% for income over $600,000) and tax stock buybacks at say 20%. Then sit back and watch the money roll in, perhaps $500 billion/year. For scale, our deficits are heading towards $1.2 trillion/year.
Then transfer some of the funds to lower income persons for healthcare and education. This will drastically improve inequality while reducing the deficit and making the U.S. more competitive. Reform of healthcare to lower costs is the longer-term deficit solution.
Study after study indicates the economic impact of tax hikes on the rich is minimal compared to cutting spending on infrastructure or welfare, so this is an efficient way to handle the deficit and inequality.
*Job creation faster in Obama's last 23 months than Trump's first 23 months; record real median household income in 2016.
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Imagine if you will Mr and Mrs Smith. They have a unique bank account that requires both of their signatures on any check they use to pay their bills or purchase new things.
One day Mr. Smith decides he wants a new set of golf clubs. Mrs Smith would like new curtains for the whole house and won’t sign a check for the new clubs. Mr Smith gets very angry and exclaims that if he can’t have his clubs he’s not signing checks to pay any bills. Anyone the Smiths owe money to isn’t getting paid. Now their landscaper gets stiffed and the paper boy and mortgage and their taxes don’t get paid.
There are plenty of reasons for Mrs Smith to give in but she knows that if she does Mr Smith will do this whenever he wants something she does not.
She tried to convince him that they should pay their bills and discuss the clubs and curtains separately. Maybe he could get new irons and she curtains for just the living room. Poor Mr Smith didn’t like this idea because he already told all his friends at his club about his new set of clubs.
Mrs Smith either has to convince him to compromise or she will file for divorce. I don’t know what happens next but nobody trusts the Smiths anymore.
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Robert Frost's "Mending Fences" and its famous line--"good fences make good neighbors"--is not about the value of boundaries. Rather it's about the folly of not thinking through old sayings and dogmatic belief.
I wonder
If I could put a notion in his head:
WHY do they make good neighbors? Isn't it
Where there are cows? But here there are no cows.
Before I built a wall I'd ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offense.
He moves in darkness as it seems to me,
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
He will not go behind his father's saying,
And he likes having thought of it so well
He says again, "Good fences make good neighbors."
Yes--if there are cows. People find workarounds. The fences are mere obstacles to workaround.
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@Michael Kubara
The opening line to that poem is "Something there is that doesn't love a wall." IMO, there are millions of somebodies who don't love that wall and don't want our tax dollars to pay for it, just in order to let Trump save face and build a monument to his humongous ego.
5
So what?
If government is denied the resources to do anything then power and wealth will flow to those with power and wealth in the "private sector". These "big finance" and multinational corporate interests will benefit regardless of how well the economy does overall.
3
@Benjamin ben-baruch Sorry, but unless they are part of the military industrial complex, they will suffer as well. For an economy to flourish, people need to spend money. 800,000 people without money is a big chunk of the economy.
6
Thank-you Editorial Board for concisely stating the harm that the shutdown is causing our economy. Your piece begins, "President Trump, you could not have wanted..."
My question to the Board, is, what if he did intend to do this harm and did want? This Administration is successfully destroying every aspect of the America I have known for 63 years.
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In terms of intent, it is difficult for those who care or understand the concept of caring, to understand folks who don't care and/or lack the cognitive abilty to care. That deficit, for example, is harbored within certain personality disorders. It is believed the part of the brain where thoughts of caring originate, the conscience in other words, is dysfunctional. It's broke and cannot be fixed.
13
@Jobim-The shutdown is a Trump-McConnell-Republican strategy to demonstrate the country can manage with less government. For the reasons this editorial states, there aren't enough revenues coming in to meet current and future obligations. Rather than own up to their failures, a panicked Trump-Republican Congress is setting the stage to cut government. They are underfunding key oversight departments and removing data (EPA, IRS, etc.); cutting programs, services, and eligibility (HUD, Medicaid, SNAP, etc.) and pushing to privatize assets (VA, healthcare by killing off the ACA). Pinning blame on the Democrats, China, other countries, and immigrants--is intended to distract from their massive graft and incompetence.
21
Dreams versus Reality. During my over 70 years I've hard this drone from "Conservatives" that "We need a businessman as president." Well, we elected one and got exactly what we deserved. A sociopath who disdains anything he doesn't understand, considers himself to be his own, and best, advisor, who thinks that all people are beneath him and thinks that the USA is exactly like "The Trump Organization" where he can rule as an autocrat. Or, to quote Oliver Hardy's famous line: "There's another fine mess you've gotten us into."
Can the nation survive? Yes, if the elected members of the legislature go back and re-learn Transactional Analysis and realize that Trump's child has activated their child and we have a schoolroom food fight an no adults to be found.
There are a few legislators using adult words like "compromise" so there is hope. This nation has survived worse and perhaps we will learn that just because somebody is successful on TV doesn't translate into being a successful president. It takes competence and charisma, not just charisma.
43
@George N. Wells
What is Trump offering to get his wall? He has already turned down or torpedoed two deals. The first one, while Republicans held both Houses, was approx $25 billion for the wall in exchange for a route to citizenship for the Dreamers. That one was reportedly torpedoed by Stephen Miller who did not want to do anything for the Dreamers. Now that the Dems have the House, the deal became predictably less favorable to Trump and Coulter et. al. killed that one. So here we are. Why should the Dems make offers to a man who apparently can't negotiate for himself?
31
@George N. Wells We got a failed businessman as president. He had four casino bankruptcies, his airline went under and his university was a fraud.
2
If Trump would have attended classes at Wharton, as opposed to somehow getting a free pass (thanks to daddy), he may actually understand this article. As anyone who took a high school business class, and paid attention in American history (so called "Gilded Age:), would understand.
So, for simple minded Trump, and much of his simple minded base, tariffs, trade embargoes, and trade wars cause the economy to shrink, causes layoffs, and in the worse case cause recessions. In the 1829s, such policies led to the Great Depression.
Trump, his staff, his Russian connections, are doing everything possible to bring down the United States; and, possibly China, and western Europe, with it.
A thinking person should be very concerned that what is going on is sowing seeds fro something much worse than the so called Great Recession.
Trump needs to be stopped. Congress needs to open their government in defiance to Trump. Let him take it to court; he will lose. Next, Trump, Pence and the Trump Cabinet need to be at least censured or driven from office by what ever Constitutional means that exist. Finally, once there is a credible administration in place, laws need to be passed that bring back into balance "checks and balances".
This must be done to restore faith in the United States, with the rest of the world, its financial standing, and with its own citizens.
We the people took our country for granted; now we are paying dearly for it with Trump and Congress.
85
@Nick Metrowsky
He did not really go to Wharton. That's a lie like everything else. He has an undergrad degree from Penn which included some classes from a pre-Wharton program.
Aside from the national security risks, I would think the most pronounced effect would be increasing the average American's marginal propensity to save. Out of every dollar Americans earn they save some piece for a rainy day. Maybe 20 cents on the dollar? With Trump's economic policy, this amount is going to go up. Let's say 30 cents on the dollar.
That means for every dollar earned in the United States, 12.5 percent less is going to current consumption. That means the economy in general is going to shrink by 12.5 percent, all things equal. That's not exactly a winning strategy. Consumers underwrite the entire democratic capitalist economic system. If they don't have money to spend, there's no incentive for companies to produce. There's no demand to supply. Consumption equals production.
This is the entire problem surrounding wealth inequality in general. The top 1% have a very low marginal propensity to consume. They might spend a fraction of a penny for every dollar earned. Where does the rest go? Presumably investments which profit from the average American's consumption. If the average American can't afford to spend though, or is too afraid to spend, consumption will fall. Production, along with profit margins, therefore also fall.
That's how the economy works.
10
Maybe we should not be so comfortable with the government having that large a role in the economy.
3
@QED
Maybe we should not be so comfortable with huge corporations (and their m/billionaire CEOs) having such a large role in the government.
84
He's governing like Maduro in Venezuela. Clueless but with too much ego to listen to anyone but his own echo chamber. We can see what that's done for the Venezuelan economy.
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