A High Schooler’s Guide to the Govt. Shutdown
What you need to know
January 15, 2019
We have reached a record breaking amount of days with the government shut down, breaking the previous record of 22 days. But why does this affect you? Should the government stay shut down? What is the point of all of this anyway?
On December 22, 2018, the government went into partial shutdown. This was at the request of President Trump in his battle to have his border wall funded.
The disagreement occurred between President Trump and the Democrats in the House, as the Democrats have refused to fund the border wall, citing Trump’s claim that he would make Mexico pay for the border wall. Since the shutdown, the Democrats have attempted to end the shutdown by offering legislation to be signed by the President, but these attempts have no succeeded.
With the lack of support from the Democrats, Trump has threatened multiple times to declare national emergency in order to begin wall construction without congressional permission.
But what does any of this have to do with you? This question may be bouncing about your head as you read this article, or maybe just ponder what effects this shut down may have. The effects the shutdown have are just now starting to be shown through a thicker lense.
Friday, Dec 11, was the first pay day that federal employees did not receive a paycheck. 800,000 employees were not paid, some of them continuously working even without payment. According to NPR, a lot of these individuals are not even allowed to leave their jobs.
Who are these employees? These employees are FDA food inspectors, NASA employees, the TSA staff, and Air Traffic Controllers, all individuals who have a great effect on the infrastructure you use regularly.
With the government shut down, national parks have also been greatly affected, with no staff or buildings opened. You can still visit national parks, however you may find the trash cans full of and overflowing with garbage, no park rangers, and toppled down protected trees.
The government shutdown can be seen as a very negative concept for a lot of individuals, but what can be done to stop it?
This answer is seemingly out of our control. On one side you have the Democrats as the issue. This issue was addressed by Raphael ‘Ted’ Cruz in his interview with Chuck Todd:
“The president remains willing to come together and compromise, but so far the Democrats don’t want to do that,” Cruz told Todd.
Cruz claimed that the Democrats were holding the federal employees seemingly trapped in the system “hostage” and that compromise could be found in the middle.
On the other end there is the fault of Mr Trump, with his forced shutdown of the government to build his wall he originally claimed would be funded elsewhere.
Regardless as to who is at fault, one conclusion can be made, and it is that this government shutdown is a historic event that affects a large amount of people.
