How Can Trump Shut Down The Us?

[chrissa1]

How can he shut down the government when it means that government employees won’t get paid?

Am I right in thinking that, and what do Americans think of it?

[-Talbot-]

It's nowt new.

[chrissa1]

But, how can he let people’s wages dry up? Is that what would happen?

[237SJ]

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/border-agents-pick-up-final-paycheck-as-shutdown-effects-set-in My heart bleeds!

[Old_Geezer]

Fewer employee rights in the US. Unions weren't the same it seems, as here. So if your employer, the gov, can't afford you, you've no job.

[chrissa1]

But, but, but........

[jim360]

It's down to the vagaries of US budgeting. When the UK government fails to pass a budget then the old one stays in force until a new one is ready, which means that everybody in the employ of government still gets paid.* When the US government fails to pass a budget then the old one expires at a particular date, and there isn't a new budget in place until it gets passed. So nobody can get paid because there is literally no (government) money to pay them with, and no mandate to pay them.

*There'd also be a general election.

[chrissa1]

So he’s using it as a threat and will simply say.....”nothing to do with me.”

[jim360]

Well, shutdowns -- or the threat of them -- have been part of US politics for decades. There was one during Obama's term, primarily because the Republicans didn't want to fund his Healthcare Act, and also several during the 1980s and 1990s.

[chrissa1]

That’s a Democracy????? It’s more like a dictatorship.

[jim360]

It's funny you should say so -- ironically, the point is to achieve the precise opposite effect, because the aim is to encourage all parties involved, Congress and the President, to cooperate and compromise. In that sense, the aim would be that any budget passed must command support across the political divide.

It doesn't always work, and this time in particular it's hard to see how a compromise can be reached. You either build a wall or you don't -- where's the middle ground?

[vetuste_ennemi]

I think the general media analysis of the Obamacare shut-down orchestrated by Ted Cruz was that this was unprincipled
political manoeuvering by a majority Republican Congress trying to frustrate the worthy goal of universal health care.

The general analysis today is that the shut-down is due to a principled stand by the majority Democrat Congress against the racist policy of the President to prevent the poor and dispossessed claiming refuge and entering the US via its southern border.

[vetuste_ennemi]

(#justanothernormadayetc)

[vetuste_ennemi]

Incidentally, did anyone see the Trump press conference a few hours earlier? It was live-streamed on YouTube.

[Cloverjo]

Does someone in the White House tell the bank not to pay the wages? Does that person still get their money? Does Trump still get his? What about his security staff?

[spathiphyllum]

Democracy is an illusion

[spathiphyllum]

When trunp took his position I remember him saying he wouldn’t take the pay check that cane with it.. not sure if he stuck to that

[jim360]

I *think* Trump still gets paid in theory, but it's worth noting that he gives his salary (less $1) to charity.

[chrissa1]

Why is he so against Obamacare?

How are the government employees going to live without a paycheque?

[jim360]

He and the rest of the Republican Party. It's an ideological thing. Obamacare is (a) Big government, (b) quite expensive, (c) socialism (a dirty word in US politics), and (d) something Obama came up with. The last two years have seen Trump and the Republicans going to great lengths to undo various of Obama's environmental, foreign, and healthcare policies.

Basically, US politics is a mess -- hopelessly divisive.

[ABerrant]

The failure of Congress and President Trump to agree funding for the relevant appropriation bills has resulted in a partial government shutdown that affects in some way around 800,000 of the 2.1 million civilian US federal workers; around half of those 800,000 are classed non-essential workers and are furloughed, i.e. no work and no pay* while essential workers are expected to work for no immediate payment (i.e. they will get paid after the shutdown).

*It’s up to Congress whether furloughed employees get paid for the shutdown period; after every previous shutdown, Congress has passed legislation mandating that furloughed workers be paid for the time away from work.