Democrats

Once, twice, three times a Trump government shutdown

If you awoke this morning feeling off-kilter, annoyed, or as though something was just off, it’s because of the federal government shutdown that went into effect early this morning.

The reason for the shutdown is because President Trump declared he would not sign a spending bill into law unless it included $5.7 billion for a wall between Mexico and our southern border. The Republican-controlled House passed just such a bill, but the Republican-controlled Senate could not muster the 60 votes needed to advance the bill for a final vote. The final vote needs only a majority to pass.

This current government shutdown is the third government shutdown under President Trump’s astute leadership.

Once, twice, three times a Trump government shutdown - Bent Corner — Any wall built should not only be impervious to Mexicans and their delicious food but also to Titans.

Personally, I think this is a stupid reason to shut down the government. Although I think building a wall between the U.S. and Mexico is even more stupid, the big orange man-baby we have as our president did run on building a wall. Elections have consequences. At least they should.

Let Trump begin building his stupid wall

Sadly, some people will not realize just how dumb building a wall on our southern border is unless we begin to build the thing. Let’s spend over $5 billion on a wall and see exactly how much wall we get for that money. Then, people can calculate for themselves how much it will then cost to repeat the process for the entire southern border.

Not capitulating to Trump’s demand for wall money could mean the government is shut down for a very long time. Are Senate Democrats ready for that? Is this something they want to find Trump on?

If the $5.7 billion sounds like a lot of money, remember that both houses of Congress already signed off on a providing the military over $700 billion for 2019. Compare that to Trump’s wall money, it doesn’t sound like a lot. Sure, it’s a waste of money, but so is most of the money going to the military.

If you ever want to see how the military wastes money, enlist in the armed forces.

They shut down the government shutdown

Democrats caved and the 2018 government shutdown is over. I’m impressed. The Democrats stood up and shook a first in the air for a full three days.

That’s impressive for Democrats. There’s a reason I changed my party affiliation from Democrat to Unaffiliated. The way the Democrats fumbled this shutdown is one of those reasons.

It’s clear at this point Republicans aren’t going to do anything to protect the people previously protected by Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). These are people who were brought to this country as small children and now face deportation back to countries many of them don’t remember. These are people who did nothing wrong. What should we do, punish someone for something that happened when they were a small child?

I guess so.

We have a failed immigration system. We’ve had one for years now. We chose not to fully enforce the immigration laws we had and we allowed millions of people to come here illegally. DACA was something, in my opinion, that helped fixed problems we allowed to happen.

If you ignore the law and allow people to come here illegally, some of them are going to bring their families. Some in those families are going to be young and truly blameless in the actions of their parents.

If anyone should be punished, punish the parents, not the children.

I expect the Republicans will fix DACA by the simple removal of the first two words, deferred action. The program goes away for good in March. I expect some young people who’ve lived in the United States most of their lives will be deported back to countries many of them don’t remember.

Some, not all.

That’s the way the law enforcement works in this county. Sometimes the law is applied, sometimes it’s not. Sometimes people who are here illegally are deported, sometimes they’re not.

My hope was that the Democrats would force Republicans to fix the problems they both allowed to happen. Not that DACA was perfect. It should have included a pathway to citizenship. I don’t want anyone immigrating to the United States unless their goal is to become a citizen.

Red alert! We have a government shutdown!

The U.S. Senate could not come to one of its 60-40 agreements late last night so that means our government has shut it down. The House passed a four-week spending bill. The Senate could not/would not do something similar. The Democrats wanted something in the spending bill, any spending bill, that would protect Dreamers, the people brought to this country illegally as children and who under the Obama Administration were protected by DACA.

People are now looking at who to blame, Democrats or Republicans. I blame the Republicans. They control the White House. They control both houses of Congress. I think this is the first government shutdown in my life where one political party controlled both houses of Congress and the White House and yet the government was shut down.

Congratulations Republicans.

The onus is on Republicans to get an agreement worked out. Like it says in the Bible or the pages of Spider-Man, with great power, there must also come great responsibility.

I agree with the Democrats that the Dreamers need to be protected. These people did nothing wrong. Their parents or the people who brought them here illegally did something wrong, but they didn’t. Something needs to be worked out that will stop Dreamers from being sent back to countries many of them don’t even remember ever living in.

DACA needs to be fixed. It’s not a Democratic issue, it’s not a Republican issue, it’s an American issue. DACA need to be extended and the people protected need a pathway to citizenship.

These government shutdowns are always a joke. The mail still gets delivered. Social Security checks still go out. The military still gets paid.

National Parks are usually closed, but who really cares about that? These shutdowns are always telegraphed well ahead of time. When it’s about to happen, how about you keep your family out of Yosemite? Chances are everyone would have come down with Lyme disease or someone would have been eaten by a bear. That’s the kind of stuff that happens all the time at National Parks.

Government workers are furloughed, but when the shut down ends, they get paid retroactively for work they did not do. They still will get paid.

Money for nothin’ and chicks for free. I think that’s from the Bible too. Or Spider-Man.

Will Democrats shut down the government because of DACA?

Some Democrats are indicating that any future funding bill must contain protections for undocumented immigrants brought here to the United States as children, the so-called Dreamers and the people currently protected by Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).

If this is true, it would mean Democrats would shut down the government of the United States for people who are not even its citizens. I don’t know how I feel about that.

On one hand, I feel for people currently protected by DACA. Under no fault of their own, they were brought here by their parents to live in a country that was not their own. They were raised here as Americans, yet because of their immigration status, they aren’t really Americans. I cannot find any fault with them. Their parents? Yes. Them, no.

If I have any problem with DACA is that it doesn’t go far enough. People protected by DACA have no pathway to citizenship. That’s wrong. If you deny the ability to become a citizen of the country they were raised in, you are forcing them into a lifelong status of being second-class, sub-humans.

That doesn’t work for anyone.

The more of us living here in the United States who are citizens, the better. We all need an equal footing here if we want this to remain the greatest country in the world.

At the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter. Even if they shut down the government, it will only be kabuki theater. It’s not like Social Security checks will fail to go out of F/A-18 Hornets will be pushed off aircraft carriers into the Mariana Trench.

On the other hand, I think I would like to see the Democrats make a fist and actually stand for something. Stop protecting DACA recipients? Plant your feet Democrats and shut this mother down.