Playing Chicken With the American Public: The Ongoing Government Shutdown

Everyone knows about the game of "playing chicken". The concept is actually quite simple. Two or more parties agree to undertake some action or actions with increasing levels of risk or danger until there is only one person remaining. Most of these games, which are designed at testing one's courage or daring, are pretty harmless and meant just for fun. However, other games of chicken can be much more dangerous or even fatal, especially when those games include a car, motorcycle, or weapon. In Washington (and state capitals as well as city halls all around America), the game of chicken is played on an entirely different level. While lives aren't directly at risk, livelihoods most certainly are and the outcomes can be as equally traumatic.

Right now, there is a game of chicken being played out between Republican President Donald Trump and members of Congress, led by Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), and Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY). At stake is the direction the country takes over border security, the issue of illegal immigration, and the funding for a wall along the Mexico-US border, all wrapped up in what has become the longest lasting government shutdown in US history.

On one side, is President Trump who, true to his campaign promise, has demanded that funding---approximately $5.6 billion dollars---be included in the budget to build a wall along our southern border with Mexico to stymie individuals and groups, among which include some very powerful and dangerous drug cartels, from illegally entering the US. On the other side, led by Pelosi, Schumer, and many of the Democrats (and a few Republicans) who want to press forward with a budget absent any funding for the wall, or for the that matter, taking any additional steps to halt illegal immigration or the drug cartels. It should be noted that some of the individuals, like Pelosi, represent states and/or districts which defy US immigration laws and promote so-called "sanctuary" status.

What does that mean exactly? Simply this. It means that states or other municipalities will not cooperate with federal authorizes in helping to identify, locate, arrest, or detention of illegal immigrates. In some cases, state and local authorities have allowed illegals with criminal records and/or felony warrants to be released with alerting federal law enforcement agencies. This means even those who are known gang members or pedophiles. It means that illegals are afforded the same privileges that ordinary citizens have, such as voting in local elections and being issued driver's licenses, access to taxpayer funded programs including housing and medical care. Meanwhile, individuals who've applied to enter this country legally are, in some cases, denied these very opportunities. Compared to the $116 billion dollars illegal immigration cost US taxpayers annually. the $5.6 billion for the wall looks pretty cheap.

In 1982, the Anti-Deficiency Act (ADA) was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Ronald Reagan. This Act, which was enacted under Article One for the Constitution, Section 9, Clause 7 (aka "the power of the purse"), mandated that the federal government shutter or curtail all non-essential agencies and furlough individuals categorized as "non-essential". Excluded were agencies which involve national security. While this Act directs agencies to reduce or cease operation as well as to furlough without pay federal employees, it also directs the essential employees must still show up to work without pay and continue to do their jobs. As an aside, while employees understand this is a condition of their employment and willingly accept it as such, they must still cope with no money from their jobs coming in, which can obviously cause a great deal of stress and financial hardship, especially since they are not entitled to unemployment (the few who are must repay it when they return to work). Of course, they do receive their back pay when the budget crisis is over, it doesn't help with the here and now of daily life.

It should be noted that while President Reagan signed this Act into law, under his administration there were eight government shutdowns, both before and afterwards, which lasted a total of 14 days. Of course, there were earlier shutdowns as well, extending by to President Gerald Ford in 1976 which lasted ten days while there were five under President Jimmy Carter which lasted a total of 57 days. President George W.H. Bush had just one, lasting three days. President Bill Clinton had two which lasted a total of 26 days. President George W. Bush had none ("miss me now?") while President Barack Obama had just one lasting 16 days. Meanwhile, President Trump has had two previous shutdowns lasting a total of 4 days and there's no telling how long this current one will last.

Another aspect seldom considered is that government shutdowns affect not just agencies and federal employees, it also affects individuals and corporations who do business with the government; they don't get paid either, yet they have to continue to fulfill their contracts with the government in order to keep their contracts. That affects their employees, who may end up facing reduced or delayed paychecks or even layoffs (of course, for them, most are entitled to unemployment checks. However, those checks are only a percentage of what they earned and they don't last long). In addition, we forget about the billions the government pumps back into the economy in the way of services which are curtailed or stopped. That could include everything from funding of roads and bridges to subsidized school lunches, WIC, and after school care programs. In fact, 52% of the Department of Health and Human Services has been furloughed.

Want more? The majority of employees for the Center for Disease Control and Prevention have been sent home without pay---just in time for flu season, not to mention the dramatic increase in problems along with southern border with a rise in various diseases like TB, whooping cough, measles, and so forth resulting from the "migrants" seeking illegal entry. The Food and Drug Administration has furloughed 45% of its employees, which includes individuals who inspect our food. The Department of Homeland Security has furloughed a substantial number its employees (what could possibly go wrong there?) while over 80% of the Secret Service has been sent home along with almost 80% of the Coast Guard and Border and Customs Protection Agency (again I ask, what could possible go wrong there?), and a majority of the US Department of Immigration and Naturalization Services. Even the E-Verify system which enables companies to check on immigration status has been shutdown. And the list goes on and on. In total, some 800,000 federal employees have been impacted with 380,000 being sent home without pay.

Of course the "good news" is that Congress, which is the primary cause of problem to begin with, is largely unaffected. Everyone in Congress still gets paid, as does their staff (Congressional members have a wide leeway as to whom they consider "essential" or not), as does the President and his staff. So, we once again have a situation where the ruling elite have exempted themselves from the laws in which they impose on us. Meanwhile, like grade school children, they've begun a "tit-for-tat" game of insults and withholding common privileges that you expect of our so-called "leaders". For instance, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi had previously invited President Trump to the Capital Building in order to address a joint session of the House and Senate ( as required by law, the House Speaker extends the invitation to the President). Now, however, Pelosi has withdrawn the invitation, citing a lack of security (which makes you wonder what this Anti-Second Amendment Speaker is afraid of). However, she wanted to use Air Force One to fly herself, her staff, and certain family members to Brussels, Egypt, and then on to Afghanistan on a "non-essential" flight (she said she wanted to avoid stops). President Trump, however, declined her request, and instead suggested she take a commercial flight (Pelosi had just returned from a "working vacation" in Hawaii on the public's dime).

It's unlikely this kindergarten behavior will be stopping anytime soon, and why should it? After all, never party has any "skin" in the game they created. They are exempt from the law which enabled them to send people home or not pay people who are require to work. Congress and the President, as well as their staffs, continue to not just get paid, but have access to their own healthcare coverage, not to mention security, planes, and so forth...all at our expense...and the millions for corporate lobbyists continue to pour in. Meanwhile, the approval rating for Congress stands at 17% as of January 18, 2019 according to Ballotpedia . In fact, Congress's approval rating has been dismal for decades now and nothing has changed. As for President Trump, his approval rating is hovering at 39% nationally, although among Republicans and conservatives, he's at 83% according to a NPR/PBS Marist Poll. That's a huge divide, which may reflect the deep and widening divide of the country more than the dislike of Trump himself or his policies.

As for the wall, according to a recent Pew Report, 58% of those polled opposed a wall (though not necessarily increasing border security). However, among Republicans and conservatives, 82% support the wall while only 6% of Democrats agree. Moderate Republicans support the wall with 69% compared to moderate Democrats, with 89% opposing it. Those are substantial folks. They clearly show the division this country is facing over something as basic as border security. We see the same thing when we look at race, with 46% of whites supporting the wall compared to 20% of blacks and 23% of Hispanics. if we look at age, we see a similar pattern; 48% of those 50 and older want the wall as do 36% of those between 30 and 40 and 25% of individuals between 18 and 29.

So, what's the answer---is there an answer? We are a deeply divided nation, and that divide is continuing to deepen and widen. It's more than partisan. It's racial and its age based. Of course, we already know that the Democrat and Republican parties are different wings of the same ruling Oligarchy; each reflecting the agenda of various competing (and cooperating) cliques. If the idea confuses you, think of them as just two competing mafia families fighting over resources with the Oligarchs acting as the "High Commission". As long as they get their cut and their interests are protected, they're happy.

Meanwhile, the people must remain divided. A divided populace is easier to control, intimidate, and manipulate. The only real question here is whether or not we are going to accept our chains willingly or are we going to fight back? If we acted together, we could end this shutdown. We could force Washington to do their jobs. We could required that the same laws passed for us apply equally to them. We could impose term limits, end gerrymandering and Citizens United, or dictate an equitable tax reform that benefits the working class for a change. We have the power, but do we have the courage to use it?


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Anti-Deficiency Act


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All 21 Government Shutdowns in US History

Generations

My generation, the Babyboomers, began with the idealism of John F. Kennedy. Granted, Kennedy wasn't a great president. Some would argue that he wasn't even a good president. Some make the claim that Kennedy was only starting to hit his stride and it would have taken a second term to test his true potential for greatness. But, of course, we will never know. When he was murdered in Dallas on that November day in 1963, the man died and the legend, or rather, the myth of Camelot began to take shape. His brother, Bobby, did much to create that myth. His death too added to it. It was a traumatic time, with the death of Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, the Civil Rights movement, the "Freedom Riders" and the murder of three young men in Mississippi, the Watts riot (and countless others), not to mention the war in Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and our government's efforts to "contain communism" through not just wars and insurrections, but manufactured coups and assassinations.

Of course, like to many wars, the one which began in Vietnam was started on the basis of a manufactured event; a lie. "The Tonkin Gulf Incident" as it was called. The story, as it was originally told, was that a US ship was in international waters when it was deliberately attacked by ships from those nasty godless Communists, the North Vietnamese. In really, there was no attack. We were told too that we were "protecting" the Vietnamese People from Communism. In truth, this was a Civil War which had its beginnings in the 1920's against the French, then the Japanese, then the French again, and finally, us. We installed the Vietnamese president (after approving the overthrow and assassination on his predecessor) and continued to prop him up throughout the war. We were lied to about the progress of the war, and the determination of our enemy that our soldiers, sailors, and airmen faced daily.

Sadly for my generation, we witnessed soldiers murdering college students at a university in Ohio named Kent State. My generation gave birth to Hippies, Yippies, and Flower Children; the SDS--Students for a Democratic Society, the Gray Panthers which sought to treat seniors with dignity, and more militant groups like the Weathermen, the Black Panthers with Huey Newton and Eldridge Cleaver, and the Symbionese Liberation Army or SLA which was made famous by heiress Patty Heart. We endured America's first defeat, not on the battlefield, but in the halls of Congress, the Office of the President, and at the negotiation table. We also witnessed governmental betrayal again with Watergate. We also saw the rise and later perversion of the "Feminist Movement", the Gay Pride Movement, Cesar Chavez and the Migrant Workers Movement for better wages and work conditions, the Ecology Movement and legislation to reduce pollution, the "Back to Nature" and the Commune Movement, the American Indian Movement (AIM) and efforts to right centuries old wrongs. We worked to bring more equality in the workplace between gender in terms of wage equality and breaking through the "glass ceiling". It should also be pointed out that we were the most materially spoiled and richest generation in history in terms of disposable income. We would go on to produce self-adsorbed materialistic Yuppies and "Soccer Moms". We became what we loathed the most.

orld stage. We have gone from the John and Bobby Kennedy, MLK, Chavez to the likes of Bill "Cigar" Clinton, George W Bush, with Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and George H.W. Bush filling in the highs and lows in between. Finally, we capped it all off with Hillary Clinton. My how we've fallen. In many respects, Hillary represents the ideals of my generation. First and foremost, she was the first woman to run for president...of a major party (there have been others, most notably Shirley Chisholm who was also black). She served as Secretary of State (but, again, she wasn't the first, and, again, most notably and more successfully, was Condoleezza Rice...and she was also black). She was the first wife of a former president to run for office, although one could make a serious argument for Eleanor Roosevelt serving as a co-President or for Woodrow Wilson's wife, Edith, serving as the defacto President following Wilson's stroke during the latter part of his second term.

There's no questioning Hillary's public persona. She comes across as someone who cares about families, women, and social justice. However, the private Hillary---as revealed by the testimonies of those close to her---plus the thousands of private emails, as shown her to be just as hard drinking, hot tempered, and foul-mouthed as any of her male colleagues, and such as conniving. There are still unanswered questions regarding illegal gunrunning deals, use of unsecured cell phones and the release of classified information, possible acts of treason, repeatedly lying to Congress, the attack on the US embassy in Benghazi which resulting in the murder of four Americans, including the ambassador, the "pay-to-play" channeling of millions to the Clinton Foundation while she was the SoS, not to mention the curious coincidences of deaths associated with the Clintons going back decades.

Hillary Clinton claims that if the election had been held on October 27th, before the FBI Director James Comey's press conference regarding her emails, she would be president today. I beg to differ. Hillary lost because she proved to a poor candidate. She showed that, as a person, she is hollow. It wasn't one particular email or instance which did Hillary in. It was the culmination of numerous instances; of numerous emails; of numerous questionable behavior that couldn't be hidden. Not every actor can maintain their mask for long. Hers repeatedly slipped when examined closely. The American People, despite her cheerleading supporters in the corporate controlled media, weren't fools after all.

The Millennials, however, are the new generation on the block. Theirs is the largest generation in terms of numbers since the Babyboomers. They are new to the political game. They haven't learned to become cynical yet. Their first taste of politics came with Barack Obama. They bought the act. They thought they had the whole political game figured out, just as we did back in the early 60's. If they were disappointed with Obama's first term, they were stunned by his second. Perhaps that's why most Millennials have turned their backs on party politics in the first place. Most are Independents (which is America's largest political "party"), followed by Democrats and trailing in third place, Republican. They are predisposed to focus on issues and move on. Perhaps that explains their disillusionment with the outcome of the election, and their (for lack of a better term), temper tantrum. They saw Hillary Clinton as perhaps the "New Hope" to borrow from Star Wars. Another chance to do what Obama couldn't or wouldn't do. Maybe it was the sense of history and electing America's first woman as president.

So, what we've seen is a generation behaving badly. They show up at events intent on destroying property and picking fights. Whereas universities and colleges were once the bastions of free speech (thanks in part to groups like the SDS), people who may disagree with them are boycotted, shouted down, harassed, while the school's administration finds itself threatened. We find some of the Millennials demanding "safe places" where they cry in seclusion. It reminds me of spoiled kindergartners or first graders. There is an old saying which goes like this, "What the grandparent seeks to overcome, the child seeks to forget, and grandchild seeks to learn". If these Millennials are seeking to imitate us, their Babyboomer grandparents, with their militant-esque behavior, they are doing a sorry job of it. Instead of trying to run away from what they dislike (or are afraid of), or trying to bully individuals or institutions into silence, they need to examine what it is that they don't like, and that means looking at the facts of each issue, which is something that Millennials are suppose to be good at; ignoring the BS and getting to the core issue, then solving the problem.

Meanwhile, we have the corporate media not wasting a single opportunity to take a swipe at Trump or his administration. It's like the first piece on every newscast or the lead article in every newspaper has to be a concocted piece designed to discredit Trump and Company in some way. We see former Republican presidents chumming it up with their former Democrat "rivals" in bashing Trump, which only goes to show how phony the party divide really is, as if we didn't already know. I have no doubt that it's intentional. It's specifically aimed at delegitimizing Trump and to set the stage to ensure "The Donald" is a one term president, and, perhaps, to prepare Americans for an Obama third term featuring Chelsea Clinton in some capacity. After all, she is the heir apparent.

So, where do we go from here? For all our faults (and there were many), my generation of Babyboomers were (and are) idealists. To paraphrase Kennedy, we saw wrongs and sought to right them however we could. But we didn't deny people the opportunity to speak, even if we disagreed with them. We did question and challenge the system. We fought for equality...for everyone, not just one or two groups. We opposed conformity, but understood too that wherever we came from or however we got here, we were Americans, and that meant speaking a commonly understood language, English, if we were to function as a society. Racism has become a bigger issue now than it was in the 70's, and it's largely not coming from whites. We sought new ways of doing things. Perhaps we went too far in some matters and not far enough in others.

However, I think there needs to be a new emphasis on education, especially trade schools, to overcome poverty, discrimination, crime, violence, and incarceration. People should be hired and promoted based on their abilities, not on a quota system. Unfortunately, education was a key area where my generation failed. It dumbed down the quality of our education out of fear of hurting feelings along with an overemphasis on "group equality" while forgetting the individual. A well educated population would have solved many of our problems then and will solve many of our problems now. Besides, it's what the political class and the Oligarchs who control them fear the most, so it has to be a good thing right? These are things the Millennials, our successors, will need to figure out.