‘Shutdown? Shut up!’

Bill Knight column for 1-3, 4 or 5, 2019

Dizzying distractions can make everyday Americans dismiss or ignore the government shutdown, but while it’s tempting to think, “Fine! Government should leave us alone anyway,” there are real consequences to regular people and conflicts of interest that spell trouble.

The first big showdown between President Trump and the Democrats, who take control of the House this week, the shutdown stems from President Trump demanding $5 billion for a wall that he repeatedly promised Mexico would pay for. Democrats offered $1.3 billion for border security – without a wall.

The shutdown has sent 380,000 federal workers home on unpaid “furloughs,” and another 420,000 must work without pay. Nine departments are most affected – Agriculture, Commerce, Homeland Security, Housing & Urban Development, Interior, Justice, State, Transportation and Treasury – as well as agencies such as NASA and the Forest Service. And the workers aren’t all in Washington, D.C. In fact, according to governing.com, of the 2 million full-time federal employees, 79 percent of them are outside the Washington area. In Illinois, 1,838 workers are in the U.S. Department of Transportation, 1,398 in Agriculture, 1,219 in Justice, 927 in Homeland Security, 924 in Treasury, 580 in Commerce, 326 in HUD, 262 in Interior and 64 in State.

Many workers and those who rely on public services are feeling increasing anxiety from the deadlock. National parks are closed; a Manhattan federal judge suspended work on civil cases involving federal lawyers (including lawsuits in which Trump is a defendant).

Many federal workers could eventually get back pay, but independent contractors won’t.

“As many as 2,000 subcontractors in federal buildings, including janitors, security guards and cafeteria servers, won't be compensated,” reported Li Zhou in Vox. “Contractors are paid directly by companies that can’t bill the government for services when it’s shut down. Because these companies won’t get paid, they aren’t able to pay their workers."

This week,

* the Department of Agriculture must delay some direct payments to farmers to help make up for losses suffered because of Trump’s tariffs and ongoing Trade Wars;

* Trump threatened to seal the Mexican border, tweeting, “Either build the wall or close the border,” which would shut off not just asylum-seekers, but commerce ($30 billion per month with Mexico, the nation’s third-largest trading partner), and the threat came days after the announcement that $10.6 billion in aid will go to Mexico and Central American nations to address problems contributing to people fleeing those areas);

* Trump’s annual for-profit New Year’s Eve party at his Mar-a-Lago resort reportedly is requiring the Secret Service to spend more than $50,000 in taxpayer money, another conflict of interest;

* further, Trump (citing concern with the federal budget) signed an executive order freezing pay for federal employees, canceling a modest 2.1 raise percent scheduled to take effect this month; and

* finally, Trump said “many” furloughed workers have no problem with the shutdown, adding that “most of the people not getting paid are Democrats,” yet the federal Office of Personnel Management on Dec. 27 communicated with affected workers that they might appeal to landlords and other creditors for consideration or do odd jobs to make ends meet.

“Just in case anyone still thinks a partial shutdown over a holiday weekend is harmless, think again,” said Tony Reardon, president of the National Treasury Employees Union. “Your friends and neighbors around the country who work for the federal government are already showing signs of financial stress.”

Polls show most Americans blame Trump and don’t consider a border wall a priority. A Reuters/Ipsos poll reported that 47 percent hold Trump responsible, with just 33 percent blaming Democrats. And according to a Business Insider poll, only 19 percent of respondents said a border wall would be "the best use" of $5 billion; 81 percent said a better use of the $5 billion would be on health care, education or infrastructure.

Elsewhere, oddsmakers at the online gaming company BetDSI predict a shutdown of about two weeks and eventual funding for border security of $1.8 billion.

On Capitol Hill, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said she’ll get a bill passed in the House to resume operations, but Republicans still control the Senate, and there’s still the Extortionist-in-Chief.

“If the president wants to gamble, perhaps he should go back to running casinos,” said Paul Shearon, president of the International Federation of Professional & Technical Engineers. “A casino is where it’s commonplace for chips to be tossed around. Gambling with the lives of federal workers is not acceptable.”

No one should shut up; our voices must cry out.