I would never go so far as to say that I believe that everything happens for a reason. I think life hands us a mixed bag of scenarios and we juggle, drop, pick back up, and handle them as best as we know how. Having said that, there are occasions where I stand corrected, and it seems if a cosmic presence recognized a situation which had turned sour and couldn’t help but intervene. According to my college-backed mathematic skills, the United States government has been partially shut down for thirty-four days, fifteen hours, and sixteen minutes, all because President Donald Trump has insisted that Congress approve his $5.7 billion budget request to construct a massive border wall along the US-Mexico border.
In a recent poll taken between Dec. 21 – 23, 2018, thirty-nine percent of registered voters — including 80 percent of Republicans — approved of the president’s current performance, whereas 56 percent — including 90 percent of Democrats and 57 percent of independents — did not, according to Morning Consult. The President’s current approval ratings haven’t been this low since refused to condemn neo-Nazis who held a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, back in August 2017.
As a result of the near-month-long partial government shutdown, close to 800,000 federal employees have gone without pay for two full pay periods, including TSA employees purposed with keeping air travelers safe from harm.
Though Trump assured several media sources that federal employees would receive their overdue wages soon, it doesn’t change the fact that the government has remained inoperable for arguably no sufficient reason. Members from the Democratic leadership, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, have pressed Trump to end the longest government shutdown in U.S. history because it has caused irreparable harm to hundreds of thousands of Americans while bringing Trump no closer to receiving funding for his wall.
For the past several weeks Speaker Pelosi and President Trump have been at odds with one another on the subject of the shutdown, as well as Pelosi’s controversial suggestion that the president holds back from delivering his State of the Union address until after the government was reopened.
“When I extended an invitation for you to deliver the State of the Union address, it was on the mutually agreed upon date, January 29th. At that time, there was no thought that the government will still be shutdown …I am writing to inform you that the House of Representatives will not consider a concurrent resolution authorizing the President’s State of the Union address in the House Chamber until the government…”
–House Speaker Nancy Pelosi
Pelosi’s letter to President Trump also echoed her wishes from the past few weeks that she would like to work together with the president to find a mutually agreeable date for his address once the government was, in fact, reopened.
Well, Speaker Pelosi may be surprised to hear that as of Friday afternoon, President Trump has reportedly agreed to reopen the federal government for the next three weeks, while the necessary parties continue their ongoing negotiations to properly secure the US-Mexico Broder.
In a press briefing at the White House Rose Garden, Trump said that he is “very proud to announce today that we have reached a deal to end the shutdown and reopen the federal government.” To be clear, the government’s reopening is temporary and the stopgap funding measure will only last until February 15, at which time Trump may elect to shut down the government once more.
As a journalist and an American, I find it infuriating that the fate of our nation’s federal government is dependent on the Democratic leadership’s acquiescing to provide the Trump administration with billions of taxpayer dollars to fund a wall that, for all intents and purposes, might not deter any more illegal immigration than the thousands of INS agents currently patrolling the border.
“We really have no choice but to build a powerful wall or steel barrier. If we don’t get a fair deal from Congress, the government will either shut down on February 15, or I will use the powers afforded to me under the laws and Constitution of the United States to address this emergency.”
–President Donald Trump
