I guess I never really believed that a lot of the news organizations were being overtly “liberal” with an agenda. It seemed to me that any individual writer(s) may have a personal opinion and that is perhaps why he wrote the article
i.e.
“Clubbing baby seals now seen as cruel”
I have had about 24 or so days to listen to or hear about how the US government shutdown is the fault of the president from one group of the media while hearing that it is not from another group. I actually think there may be enough blame to go around so here is my chance to offer my impartial view.
President Trump
Could the shutdown be the president’s fault? The easiest person to blame about this is the president. He doesn’t make it easy to give him any benefit of the doubt when he says things like.
Dec 21, 2018
I am proud to shut down the government for border security
I will take the mantle of shutting down. And I’m going to shut it down for border security.
In one sense you could say that it is refreshing that he is willing to stand up for what he believes. You could also imagine that this is a pretty unrealistic desire. President Trump was unable to get wall funding approved when he had a majority in both the house and the Senate. How did he imagine it would work with the house of representatives expected to be counter to a lot of his ideas.
Republicans
Could the shutdown be the Republicans fault? The Republicans in both the house and the Senate did agree in Dec 2018 on a stop gap bill to keep the government open. This was not approved by the president which was the start of this shutdown. However, a very similar bill has been approved in 2019 by the house of representatives but it has not even been brought to the Senate floor for a vote. (naughty naughty Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell)
Democrats
Could the shutdown be the Democrat’s fault? It is possible to suggest that the Democrats are at fault over this budget impasse. They just got into power and perhaps are kicking up their heels to prevent the “good works” of the president. After all the difference between that money that President Trump wants (5.7Billion) and the total budget of the US government (3.422 Trillion in 2018) is, in essence, a rounding error of 0.16%. They did try and submit the same stop gap bill as in Dec 2018 to the Senate where it didn’t really go anywhere.
How did this start exactly?
The Congress did not actually manage to create a budget for the government by the Oct, which is the beginning of the fiscal year. In order to keep the government running, they did manage to pass a continuing resolution to fund the US government, but this temporary resolution was not passed by “The Donald”.
Congress
Is it the fault of the congressional branch of the US government? This is also a very strong possibility. The taking the busiest of congressional years, 2007, the number of days spent working was 190 which does compare pretty favorably to the number of working days for the average US worker (260).
Don’t misunderstand it is not that I am jealous (I am) as they work less[1] and earn more money than most people. The reason why this might be a congressional problem is that the budget is late but more importantly it isn’t a proper budget. Not only that but in the last 48 years which covers a lot of republican and democratic majorities there have only been four budgets that have been in surplus (1998-2001)[4]. A budget deficit in a family budget can occur but usually only for a short time and never for an entire year. This means that most members of Congress have not really done their job for decades.
Well, I imagine that these men and women of Congress, nay public servants, are actually barely able to make ends meet. Perhaps they are all overworked with second and third jobs just to pay their bills[2]? This also does not seem to be the case. These public servants not only can pay the bills but they are accumulating enough wealth that they may actually disprove the classless society in the united states.
No, those tireless public servants have not been spending their free time thinking of how to balance the budget but have instead spent their time funding raising[3]. The amount of time spent fundraising is mind-blowing. It seems to me that whether or not Congress is to blame for the current US government shutdown is a bit of a moot point as they have been complicit for nearly 5 decades of poor fiscal management.
You and I the voter
Is it possible that the reason the US government is shut down is the fault of you or me? I would say that unfortunately the American voters have also been complicit in these problems. This is not immediately connectable with shutdown but in the permissive attitude that they have supported, nay, encouraged in their representatives.
All of these are important
Strong defense
Protect the weak
Clean water
Safe food
Clean air
Global warming
Anti-discrimination
Strong borders
Nation of laws
Equal protection under the law
1st amendment rights
Right to bear arms
You may not agree with all of these but if we the voter do not look at the bigger picture when we elect a congressman then we are with 100% certainty responsible for this shutdown and the next.
A workaround
It is still possible for both houses of Congress to pass a common bill with 2/3 vote of both houses. This would override any possible presidential veto and would get the government running again. Once that is done then having real fact-based discussions on the wall or other ideas for a better and stronger America would be good.
There is enough fault to pass around. Rather than trying to assign blame lets work in a non-partisan fashion and get things done.
[1] https://www.thoughtco.com/average-number-of-legislative-days-3368250
[2] https://bigthink.com/news/heres-how-much-senators-and-congress-members-are-worth-compared-with-us-common-people-surprised
[3] https://www.termlimits.com/congress-fundraising-priority/
[4] https://www.thoughtco.com/history-of-us-federal-budget-deficit-3321439
