Government Shutdown

[posting this here because the Shutdown is big News right now......]

I apologize up front if this is a wee bit cryptic, but I have to be careful of what I disclose here.

I found out today that the Shutdown is having a direct and adverse effect on me, and I really did not expect it. An important thing that is happening in my life has been put on hold until the Shutdown is over, and that is causing me problems. Still, I am not crying, or whining, just saying.

It also got me wondering if anyone else here on CC is being directly effected by the Shutdown?

thanks......

Not me personally but it could affect millions of Americans who rely on government assistance
Food stamps
HUD
School lunch programs
Government funded food pantries

Hello, p_rehbein;

Its nice to meet you and thank you for your thread. My sister has been a Fed employee for over 30 years. She is watching her money very careful right now. This effects my whole family. We call her weekly, am sending her love offerings and encourage her as much as we can.

We reside in the SF Bay Area and for many who are on shutdown in the church and community we try to help by:

Offering rides to the supermarket, doctor, etc...to help them save gas.
Go for walks or invite over for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Have fellowship and pray over them.
Call frequently to let them know we are with them.
And many other things we can do for them.

Yes, I'm effected for many of our fellow brothers and sisters because of the shutdown but find that loving support and prayer does bless them as well as ourselves during this time.

God bless you, p_rehbein, and your family.

Thank you for that bobinfaith.............and God bless you and your Church for doing what you can for those around you who are being effected by this shutdown........

Add my prayers for them as well

I don’t understand the shut down, or the way budgets are
approved in the US. Why can’t everything else be approved and
The Wall be considered separately?

It can’t be right that one person can hold the entire US to ransom.
Trump is pretty much doing what the US fears terrorists will do,
ie shut them down!

It can be separate from everything else. It isn't because by including it in the budget, it forces either the President, Congress, or both to accept what the other wants. The Wall isn't the only thing they do this with.

It's a Political game with them, and, while Trump is surely carrying blame on this, so are both the Dems and Repubs in Congress............they ALL are to blame for the mess on our Southern Border, and for the mess they have made of our Government in general..........

It is all a game to them. Designed to see who can mass the most power and money, and hold onto Office the longest..........it is ALL ABOUT THEM!

The American people are an after thought .............. at best

stop funneling money into the War on Drugs and the prison industrial complex and there's your wall money

The way it works is (more or less) the House sends a budget to the Senate. They can vote to pass it, reject it outright, make changes and send it back to the House, or get together with the House to agree on changes, and then sign on and send it to the President who can sign it to make it Law or veto it. I do not believe the President has "line item veto" power, which essentially means he can cross out parts of the Bill he doesn't like.

The Bill then goes back to Congress, and if they have enough votes, (I'm not sure of the threshold, I think 2/3rds) they can OVERRIDE the Presidential veto and the Bill becomes Law.

Obama shut the government down by rejecting the Republican Bill, The Republicans didn't have the votes to override, so hence, we had a shut down and it was blamed on the Republicans in Congress. They eventually capitulated and pretty much gave Obama everything he wanted.

Now Trump does the EXACT same thing, and the shutdown is blamed on him? You don't see a glaringly obvious hypocrisy there?

The wall funding cannot be a separate funding issue because the Democrats WILL NOT fund it! That's why we have the shut down.

To understand what is being asked in terms of funds, we are talking about, the funds the President is asking for represents LESS than 0.0998 % of the 4.5 TRILLION Dollar Budget. ( Yes. That is the insane amount of money we spend in just ONE year! )

For the Democrats, it was NEVER about the money. It was ALWAYS about the politics, and with their vast cabal in the media, and the hope to make illegal aliens Democrat voters.

For the President and the Republicans, and most Americans, it is about securing a border to prevent ILLEGAL entry into the country.

Now, after experiencing the EU forcing you to accept every dang immigrant that makes it to your country, REGARDLESS what you want, or the effect it will have on your country, tell me who is right in this shutdown.

We've had a fake war on drugs going on since 1970. It Hasn't solved anything except made successful drug traffickers' rich. And encouraged evil doers to do more evil. The way it has been done seems worse than the prohibition of alcohols effect on the mafia.

The Alps didn't stop Hannibal and a wall isn't going to stop narco terrorists from without and it will continue to make home grown drug labs more money. If we want to stem the rising tide of illegals from entering, I think we need to deal with what they are running from rather than trying to block their path.

If we really want a war on drugs or foreign terrorists. Let's take off the gloves and pick up some brass knuckles. We can beat these guys. Why are we protecting Afghanistan and ignoring Mexico?

Thank you, what I didn't understand the most, is why a shut down?
If UK government politicians don’t agree on something it doesn’t result in
a shut down of government and budgets.

We don’t have that scenario. I work in the civil service and have for 21 years.
We’ve never had a shut down over a funding disagreement.

That being said ...... you never know how Brexit might pan out. Lol

To be clear, the ENTIRE gov is NOT shut down.

I'm not sure of everything affected, but the military is still funded, people still get their social security, and medicare.

I believe almost ALL the vast array of welfare programs are unaffected, and "essential" gov services, but that is little comfort to those who ARE affected.

Call your reps and put pressure on them to fully fund our border.

It is a partial shutdown. Those personnel considered "non-essential" are furloughed.

Some parts of Government aren't involved at all. Some are partially involved. It's a terrible, tangled web that they weave in determining who keeps working and who goes home.

Some even have to work without pay. Now, when the shutdown is over, they will receive back pay, but I.O.U.'s don't pay the rent or buy groceries. One example of this are the Security Screening folks at the airports.

I honestly can't see any way this can end anytime soon. the shutdown is trump's only leverage to try to get what his base wants, while the dems have demonized the wall so much, if they approve it, all their snowflake followers will lose their minds....

Never have I seen such craziness and sheer panic from the democrats, it is bizarre.....take courage though it is all part of the plan as they reveal who they truly are.

I thought that you might be interested in where we already have a border wall.

Brother, I am sorry to hear that you are among the mass of humanity who are directly impacted by this 'Political Theater'...
I will pray for you and that you be blessed with the means to persevere and weather this embarrassingly avoidable scenario...

While many are quick to point the finger to one side or the other - I blame all three Political stakeholders and I propose a common sense forcing function to prevent anyone from every taking our Government Employees hostage ever again...

Write Legislation to hold all congressional and presidential politicians who are ever involved in allowing a Government Shutdown to:
1 - not ever be allowed to run for re-election and
2 - commit a predetermined portion of their salary (ie 75%) to be withheld during any periods of shutdown during their watch and used as compensation to all government employees whom are directly impacted by the existing shutdown (for all foreseeable future occurrences)...

God Bless

1 - I agree
2 - They should not receive any salary for any year that they force a shutdown, or kick the can down the road.

We elected them to work for us, not to boost their egos or fill their own pockets.

A lot of Democrats feel that the wall is a waste of money because illegal border crossings are at a 40-year low right now

a wall would bring it to an all-time low.

As an analyst who strives to be an objective equal opportunity 'conspiracy theorist'...
Here are my personal rules regarding Politicians and their clever tendency for the misuse of reporting Numbers...
1 - ALL Politicians are liars
2 - ALL Politicians have minions who are disciples of the Book of "How to Lie with Statistics" and regularly USE FUZZY MATH for reporting
3 - Always Fact-Check the Fact Checkers by questioning and requesting the pedigree of their Source of Data and access to that data source...
4 - Be Mindful of their very slick way of taking liberty with the Denominators and Numerators whenever they report percentages, along with reported increasing or decreasing trends...

For Example for this particular reported trend:
- I would question the reporting accuracy of any illegal act over a 40 year period - based purely upon the historic accuracy of the data recording and reporting means... For example: 40 year reporting on Rape statistics can potentially be refuted with the plausibility that less victims were unwilling to come forward 40 years ago and report such a crime...
- In this case - given the nature of the border crossing occurring illegally - begs the question 'how many illegal border crossing have occurred over the past 40 years that were never reported... Having lived in So Cal and Az over half of my life - I'd say A LOT...
- Re: Fuzzy Math and how Political Minions conveniently manipulate the numbers... This article (below) demonstrates the plausibility that the reported number of illegal immigrants does not include the large numbers who were granted amnesty only four years ago..

Obama offers amnesty to 5 million illegal immigrants, defies GOP
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/nov/20/obama-offers-amnesty-to-millions-of-illegal-immigr/

Which coincides with the following reported outcomes/impacts as it pertains to reporting Numbers:

"How many asylum applications were filed in the United States, and where are asylum seekers from?

In FY 2016, an estimated 115,399 affirmative asylum applications were filed with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)—39 percent more than in FY 2015 and the highest level since 1995. This represented the seventh consecutive annual increase in application volume. Applicants for affirmative asylum must be present in the United States or arriving at a port of entry, and do not include those seeking asylum through the defensive asylum process while in removal proceedings.

China remained the top country of origin for affirmative asylum applications, with 16,490 in FY 2016; followed by 14,773 from Venezuela and 14,663 from Mexico. Affirmative asylum applications from the Northern Triangle countries of Central America (El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras) have also risen dramatically in the past three years, from 7,723 to 25,801.

Meanwhile, 65,218 defensive asylum applications were filed with the Department of Justice's Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) in FY 2016, a 42 percent increase from 45,779 applications a year earlier. Northern Triangle countries accounted for 61 percent (39,881) of total applications, followed by Mexico (20 percent or 12,831) and a much smaller share from China (3 percent or 1,840 cases)."
Ref: https://www.migrationpolicy.org/art...gvrTT-90OfJ54nVQxoCXFAQAvD_BwE#ChangeOverTime