By Nick Baum
THURSDAY – 1/10/19
The partial government shutdown has now reached 19 days with very little sign of an end in sight. But as the days with empty department headquarters drags, so does the number of fingers pointing in different directions. What many individuals and the media fail to realize, though, is that both sides are to blame.
Both Senate Republicans and Democrats acted hastily with one another when voting on a temporary government funding bill, mostly in part due to the $5 billion border wall that was a key part of Trump’s campaign promises. The wall is fine, in fact, it is one of the most efficient ways of stopping illegal immigrants. Even if half of all border crossings were stopped, we would save $64 billion in welfare.
Honestly, it’s on the Democrats if they don’t want to vote for the border wall. The fact that they would rather allow a government shutdown than protecting our borders and our citizens really makes you question the motives of their party. However, we shouldn’t act like President Trump and the Senate Republicans are innocent, either.
Donald Trump had stated multiple times that he was, “proud to shut the government down” and said that he could “keep the government closed for months or even years.” Not only that, but he has been met with conservative praise to shutting down the government, calling it a “win”. In fact, a bill sponsored by Senate Democrats to fund the IRS and tax filing agencies was blocked by Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell.
While the reason for the bill being blocked could’ve been due to the conservative side’s dislike of high taxes, especially when a portion of the government isn’t operating, it is no question that both sides have responsibility on this pressing issue, that must be resolved soon enough.
Sources and Pictures: Wikimedia Commons, CNN, C-SPAN, MSNBC, Fox News
