{"id":1466,"date":"2019-01-12T10:41:20","date_gmt":"2019-01-12T15:41:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/?p=1466"},"modified":"2019-01-12T10:41:26","modified_gmt":"2019-01-12T15:41:26","slug":"missing-the-point","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2019\/01\/12\/missing-the-point\/","title":{"rendered":"Missing the Point"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Missing the Point<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yesterday, the United States Government set a dubious record:  the longest government shut down in American History.  This shutdown has gone on for three weeks:  over 800,000 government workers either aren\u2019t working at all, or perhaps worse, are required to work without pay.  It\u2019s not just about their lost or delayed wages; it\u2019s also about the services they are unable to perform.  Farmers are waiting for loans to buy seed, brewers are waiting for licenses to brew, small businesses depending on SBA loans are stymied, local governments are cutting bus services because of stalled Federal Grants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These are the less known examples:\u00a0\u00a0we are all aware of the trash piling up in the National Parks.\u00a0\u00a0They aren\u2019t closed; that would impact \u201ccivilians\u201d too much, so instead they are left open and unprotected.\u00a0\u00a0At Joshua Tree National Park, vandals are literally cutting the Joshua Trees to gain access to the back-country for four-wheeling.\u00a0\u00a0At Yellowstone, Shenandoah and on the National Mall; the trash accumulates.\u00a0\u00a0Should the shutdown continue, the SNAP (food stamp) program will be effected, non-agent employees of the FBI will be furloughed, the Federal Courts will be curtailed, and tax returns may not be processed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The shutdown is all about the President and the Congress.  President Trump wants $5 Billion for building \u201cWALL\u201d on the Mexican border, Democrats controlling the House of Representatives, while willing to provide money for border protection, won\u2019t give him his WALL.  While both sides have tried to negotiate, it has all come down to WALL, and neither side is willing to budge.  The shutdown goes on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But there are some consequences of the shutdown that are benefitting the President, and others who support him.  Those consequences make it even less likely that the shutdown will end soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first, and most obvious, is it takes the focus off of the Mueller Investigation.\u00a0\u00a0It seems clear that it is coming to a conclusion; in the next couple months the Special Counsel will be issuing indictments, perhaps even of the President\u2019s children.\u00a0\u00a0The shutdown has quieted much of that talk (though the\u00a0New York Times<\/a>article reporting that the FBI opened a counter-intelligence investigation into the President seems to have risen above the shutdown \u201cnoise.\u201d)\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As long as the President sees himself as the focus of news coverage because of the shutdown, it also keeps the new Democratic House of Representatives from stealing the spotlight. I\u2019m sure the President isn\u2019t happy when Speaker Pelosi, or even worse, Congressman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, gets headlines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But there are other hidden \u201cbenefits\u201d for the President as well.  The Federal Courts have slowed down the progress of most civil litigation, and it will come to a halt if the shutdown continues.  The President is facing a number of civil suits<\/a>, particularly the emoluments case in the District of Columbia.  He still faces a lawsuit from Stormy Daniels, and a lawsuit about First Amendment violations of multiple \u201cTrump enemies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the Federal shutdown impacts Federal cases, that aren\u2019t slowing the work of the New York State Attorney General, particularly her actions regarding the Trump Foundation and Trump Organization violations of New York State tax law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One way the shutdown might end is if Republican Senators feel the pressure from their constituents to make the government work.\u00a0\u00a0The problem is that Republican Senators are even more sensitive to pressure from their financial base, particularly the huge money interests represented by billionaires like the Koch brothers.\u00a0\u00a0Until \u201cthe money turns\u201d it\u2019s not likely those Senators will turn on the President.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Cato Institute is a conservative think tank, founded by the far right billionaire brothers.\u00a0\u00a0This is the Institutes\u2019 view of the shutdown in an article titled \u201cGovernment shutdown exposes how big government has become<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Here\u2019s some excerpts:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026And now, because the\u00a0TSA is the only screening organization we have, the shutdown may affect the entire nation’s air travel\u2026The loss of officers, while we’re already shorthanded, will create a massive security risk for American travelers\u2026but political battles would not impact such important activities if they were separated from the federal government. Many advanced nations, including Britain and France, have privatized their screening or moved it to the control of local airports.\u00a0\u00a0If we followed suit, there would not be just one “pipeline” for trainees because airports could contract services from numerous companies.\u00a0(Response Action Network<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

With an overall goal of privatizing almost every government function, the Cato Institute is using the shutdown to try to prove that the government is unreliable.\u00a0\u00a0If their sponsor Koch Brothers want to use the shutdown to prove their point, they are unlikely to encourage the Republican Senators they finance to end the crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ending the shutdown will depend on pressure on all sides.  While the President is likely to hold firm to WALL, the critical balance will be Federal worker pressure on Democrats and constituent pressure on Republican legislators.  Congress could open the government over the President\u2019s objections \u2013 but it would take a two-thirds vote to do it.  That\u2019s not likely, but with a President, and some members of Congress, with less obvious reasons for keeping the government closed, that might be missing the point anyway.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Missing the Point Yesterday, the United States Government set a dubious record:  the longest government shut down in American History.  This shutdown has gone on for three weeks:  over 800,000 government workers either aren\u2019t working at all, or perhaps worse, are required to work without pay.  It\u2019s not just about their lost or delayed wages; it\u2019s also about the … Continue reading “Missing the Point”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nMissing the Point : Our America - Essays on Politics and American Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2019\/01\/12\/missing-the-point\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Missing the Point : Our America - Essays on Politics and American Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Missing the Point Yesterday, the United States Government set a dubious record:  the longest government shut down in American History.  This shutdown has gone on for three weeks:  over 800,000 government workers either aren\u2019t working at all, or perhaps worse, are required to work without pay.  It\u2019s not just about their lost or delayed wages; it\u2019s also about the … Continue reading "Missing the Point"\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2019\/01\/12\/missing-the-point\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Our America - 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