Shut Down the Shutdown

By Ameara Ditsche
Staff Editor

As of January 21st, it has been a whole month (30 days) into the longest running government shutdown in history, which surpasses the previous record by over two weeks.

The shutdown was caused by issues within government branches about funding. Trump has made requests for funds to be allocated towards his wall on the southern border and since Congress is trying to prevent that, there is no budget plan and the government is in a partial shutdown. This presents numerous issues, not only for the safety of the American people but reflects how poorly the president is doing at the job he continuously proves to be unfit for.

Without funding many government agencies are forced to shut down, one notable in this instance would be the FDA, or Food and Drug Administration. The FDA is responsible for establishing the guidelines products need to adhere to and making sure they follow them. The FDA is one of the agencies affected by the shutdown so many different food items being sold in the United States are not being checked for potential dangers like bacteria or diseases. This directly puts us at a higher risk for outbreaks of issues like salmonella or E. Coli.

Either Trump is aware of this and is making the conscious choice to put American lives at risk to further his own political agenda, or he is unaware of the inner workings of American policy, either way it is a sickening but not surprising display of the Administration’s values.

Without funding for itself, the government can’t give out money. This means that people receiving government based aid might not receive money that they depend on for survival. Single mothers could be going without the food stamps that feed their children, the elderly not receiving the social security that pays their rent, veterans that fought for this country losing the benefits they receive.

Again this shows a blatant disregard for the livelihood of citizens, Trump at best, does not care enough to educate himself on the consequences of his actions. He does not have the capacity to understand the gravity of his actions. His privileged upbringing is a wedge between him and most americans. His inability to understand has a correlation to his inability to lead.

However, that is not an excuse because he has so many resources at his disposal, he could be using them to learn and change. But, he isn’t, which says more about his character than he realizes.

What is possibly most concerning about this shutdown is Trump’s reasoning behind it. His request is for a large wall with a $40B price tag running along the U.S.-Mexico border. He claims that this wall will end illegal immigration and ensure safety from crimes committed by illegal crime rates.

What he continually fails to realize is that illegal immigrants are no as big as a problem as he makes them out to be. The majority of them pay taxes and live troubleless lives. Also, very little illegal immigration is a result of illegal border crossings. The majority comes from people who acquired some sort of temporary visa and overstayed it after it’s expiration.

Many supporters are comparing this to the 17 day shutdown during Barack Obama’s presidency. The key difference is their motives, Obama let the shutdown happen in order for him to get funding for Obamacare, a program that has saved countless lives. Regardless of your opinion on the Affordable Care Act, you cannot deny that his intentions were pure. He had an idea to save American’s in need and used his power to make it happen. Trump is abusing that same power to put us up as a bargaining chip to satisfy his own personal wants.

This whole ordeal further intensifies the already rocky relationship between Trump and Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Pelosi was scheduled to go on a trip to Egypt, Afghanistan, and Belgium to visit the troops overseas. The White House sent a letter to Pelosi informing her it would be rescheduled while she stayed in Washington D.C. to “fight for strong border security.” The biting tone caused by obvious sarcasm reads like a satire; official government documents should not read like satire.

No matter your opinion on his ethics or policies, you need to admit Trump is not doing well at his job. Trump is childish and a true reality TV star, caring more about getting a cheap laugh or grabbing attention, than being good at his job. His job is to run our government, which he is refusing to do in a racism fueled temper tantrum.