‘Shut ’em down!’ or ‘We the people’?

Bill Knight column for Thurs., Fri., or Sat., Jan. 25, 26 or 27, 2018

Shortly before women worldwide marched last weekend, the federal government shut down, and reactions ranged from sarcastic celebration to concerned disappointment.

 The cynics may sing the Beach Boys’ classic car song, “Shut Down”:

“It happened on the strip where the road is wide,/ two cool shorts standin' side by side…”

Granted, it’s difficult to think of Sens. Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer as “two cool shorts,” but the 1.8-mile strip of Pennsylvania Avenue between the White House and the Capitol is wide, if not welcoming.

On the other hand, some Americans think of another government shutdown (the last one, for 16 days, was in 2013), of the republic as self-government, and of why our “selves” aren’t reflected in the “selves” in Washington.

A few officials tried to address the mish-mash of shutdown subjects: a budget, addressing undocumented immigrants brought here as kids, and children’s health insurance. Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.) and others drafted a bipartisan compromise accepted, then rejected, by President Trump.

Congress had to pass a spending bill to keep government funded. It didn’t, so 850,000 workers like those handling Social Security disability claims, were furloughed home, unpaid. A million others deemed “essential” – the military, air traffic controllers, corrections officers, etc.– are working, but without pay.

“It is very clear a federal shutdown could inflict serious pain on everyday working people,” American Federation of Government president J. David Cox, talking to Press Associates Union News Service hours before the shutdown. “We urge the president and Congress to keep the federal government open and provide the necessary resources so agencies can provide services the American people respect and rely on.”

The shutdown could postpone pay for 2 million people in the military, and delays in education, compensation and pension benefits for thousands of veterans, too, Cox added.

Despite disruptions – halting small-business and rural communities’ loans and work by the consumer protection services and other key operations – continuing are airport security checks, food inspections and federal courts (while existing funds last), veterans and other health care, and Medicare and Medicaid.

Negotiations are ongoing as this is written, but Schumer’s unexpected support for having taxpayers fund an expensive border wall and McConnell’s newfound praise for the Children’s Health Insurance Program are more suspicious than pleasing, as discouraging as wavering Democrats, including Sens. Tim Kaine and Debbie Stabenow, putting election prospects before principles and the common good.

Foreshadowed by Trump – in May when he said maybe the nation “needs a good shutdown” (which cost the economy billions in 2013), and in August when he threatened a shutdown if he didn’t get his way on a border wall – the shutdown’s responsibility rests on Republicans, according to some Republicans.

GOP consultant John Weaver said the blame is Trump on and Republicans: “Trump created the [Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program] crisis. The congressional wing of the GOP refused to fund CHIP. Trump and GOP ignored the pleas of the Pentagon for a fully funded budget. All of this is on them.”

U.S. Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.) from the House Appropriations Committee added, “We’re in the majority, we control all three branches. So we’re going to get blamed, whether we deserve it or not. Just the way it is.”

Former Republican Party Chair Michael Steele commented, “Despite the rhetorical effort to paste Democrats with ‘Schumer’s Shutdown’ and to redefine what constitutes majority control of the Senate (‘60’? Really?), the fact remains that this shutdown rests at the feet of the GOP and it appears a majority of Americans agree.”

However, isn’t on all of us, the governed? Trump was elected (by the Electoral College, if not most voters), and voters sent representatives to Congress who are overwhelmingly beholden to Big Money. Both parties seem increasingly to consider politics and elections, not service and citizens.

Again, from the Beach Boys’ hit song from 1963, two lines that sound like such politicians:

“Revvin' up our engines and it sounds real mean” could come from Stephen Miller, Trump's sinister senior policy adviser, and

“Gotta be cool now, power shift here we go,” could be an overly optimistic Democratic strategist playing games with the future.

Overall, though, the shutdown is a moment of shame, not amusement.