Shutdown Collateral Damage

Spectator

On and on it drags, a shutdown of the government because we no longer have a functioning government. Congress needed to pass a budget extension no later than October 1, but they did not. Instead, we have a seemingly intractable argument over federally funded healthcare.

In the background of this stalemate is the so-called Big Beautiful Bill that Republicans already passed. According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), that bill will slash Medicaid, the program providing healthcare assistance to elderly, low-income adults, and some children, by $1 trillion (that's $1,000,000,000,000) over the next decade. As a result, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) says millions will lose coverage and face far more restrictive enrollment policies or dramatically higher premiums.

Additionally, according to the CBPP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), first initiated in 1996, designed to help low-income families with children, will be cut to some of those families and their two million SNAP eligible children. Same with free school lunch programs for low-income students.

So the Democrats argue they want some restoration of Medicaid cuts and an extension of healthcare tax credits that are part of the Affordable Care Act, plus a dispersal of money already budgeted for and approved by Congress.

Republicans are demanding what they call a “clean” budget extension and say they will negotiate the healthcare and other issues after the current bill is signed. Of course, once the current budget bill is signed, the GOP has almost no incentive to negotiate any issues they claim were just settled.

The GOP might have an additional motive for their intransigence; it gives them the opportunity to lay waste to the federal workforce they’ve long wanted to cut. Since January, prior to the shutdown, more than 4,000 federal employees had been laid off, fired, or furloughed, though the courts have halted some of those actions.

President Trump sees this as a chance to “gut Democratic agencies,” whatever those might be, and further reduce spending to Democrat-run cities or states.

Currently, some services are already dramatically slowed or unavailable. The Small Business Administration and Federal Housing Administration and their financial assistance and mortgage loans are stopped; National Parks remain open, but much of the maintenance and development work is stopped; all food assistance programs will soon run out of money; 730,000 federal employees are currently working without pay (including air traffic controllers!) and another 670,000 have been furloughed outright.

And, of course, scientists and researchers from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have been laid off, endangering both national health and preparation for nasty weather events. According to a 2019 law, those temporarily laid off because of the shutdown should all receive back pay, but Trump is trying to find loopholes to avoid that obligation.

As you might have guessed, Congress continues to pay themselves, and the Constitution requires we keep paying federal judges, federal appointees confirmed by the Senate, the military, and federal law enforcement. A strong, loud argument could be made that Congress deserves no paycheck as long as they deprive other federal workers of theirs, but unsurprisingly they’ve protected themselves against the vagaries of their own stupidity.

Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson says “the public is not stupid” and they know the Democrats are to blame because they are demanding free Medicaid for illegal immigrants, among other dishonest talking points. Fortunately, the public isn’t stupid and understands the Democrats are demanding no such thing, but they’d kind of like Medicaid for poor folks back and some nutritional food for low-income kids both at home and at school.

The public seems to agree as virtually every poll points the finger of blame squarely at Republicans. (Be advised the public is not at all thrilled with either party as this foolishness drags on, but less so with the GOP right now.)

Some examples: the latest Reuters/Ipsos polls blames the GOP by a 50-43 margin, a Quinnipiac poll has it 45-39 GOP fault, and the Economist/YouGov poll pegs it at 39-30 Republicans to blame. Additionally, the Economist/YouGov poll asked respondents if they thought the Democrats should continue to hold out or agree to support the GOP budget, and 45 percent said they should hold fast, while only 32 percent thought they should cave.

Government shutdowns are not new—there have been 14 government shutdowns since 1980. None of them made much sense, though all of them were touted as acts of great principle and conscience. The current impasse has the earmarks of another Trump ulterior motive, an attempt to slash and burn federal departments he neither understands nor appreciates.

The people losing their jobs or their healthcare, or children losing their school lunch, are just collateral damage in the MAGA world.

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