As the government shutdown now moves into its third week – the longest U.S. government shutdown in history – the effects are being felt locally.
Anyone traveling can expect long airport lines. While Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees are supposed to show up at work, they are doing so without pay. And they are not happy about it.
Want to travel to Big Bend National Park? Don’t. National Park services, such as Ranger programs, permits, visitor centers, trash collection and more, are shut down
Let’s hope that we don’t need the National Weather Service for anything major. Many of its workers have been sent home.
Are you planning on filing your taxes and hoping to get your federal tax refund? Forget it. The IRS will gladly take your money, but it will not be giving you yours anytime soon.
And all of this is not because of the Democrats, despite President Trump’s claims. The Democrats have already put forth the exact same funding bill, which includes $1.3 billion for border security, as earlier passed by the Senate.
But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will not bring that bill up – despite its earlier approval – knowing that Trump will veto it – over a wall that Trump said Mexico would pay for. The price of the wall has now risen to $5 billion – and Americans are the ones who would foot the bill.
That’s the shame of all of this mess. Americans would end up paying for the wall, and they will end up paying for the shutdown. Hundreds of thousands of federal workers are sitting at home, not knowing if they will get paid.
That’s not the only price of a shutdown. County and city governments don’t have the option to shut down. Yet roughly 30 percent of all states’ revenues come from the federal government. Hmmm ... guess who pays for that.
Economists say that a government shutdown costs the nation about $6.5 billion PER WEEK.
Trump must understand that the damn wall will do little to stop the flow of undocumented immigrants. Most illegal immigrants don’t come tramping through the Texas and California borders, but fly in on planes and overstay their temporary visas.
Illegal border crossings are actually down. If you are looking at the southern border, compare the figures – 1.6 milion people apprehended in 2000, compared to less than 400,000 in 2018. Yep. That’s fact.
Counties along the southern border are also among the safest in the U.S. It’s not a menacing horde coming to cross our border, despite what Trump says. It’s families fleeing poverty and threats of violence in their home country.
All of the untruths – lies – that Trump is using to get us to fund his wall need to be outed.
We don’t need the damn wall.
We don’t want to pay for Trump’s uninformed campaign promise.
Give it up and let’s get the government going again.
While we can still save a billion or two dollars.
