Our so-called president likes to brag about his so-called achievements. Now he has the longest ever (and continuing) federal government shutdown. He can brag about those 800,000 federal employees plus federal contractors who are agonizing over how to pay their bills and showing up at food banks.
According to National Public Radio, President Donald Trump has shut down wildfire hazard mitigation on federal lands and preparations for wildfire season, even as he criticizes federal land managers for failure to do these things.
Trump's shutdown is affecting some people trying to get or refinance mortgages.
It's starting to create longer lines for airport security screening as unpaid screeners start to call in sick so they can work some other job that actually pays.
It could soon threaten eviction for low-income people, many of them seniors or disabled, in federal subsidized housing.
In February, it could shut down SNAP food assistance for people who work hard in low-wage jobs.
Democrats, who now control the House of Representatives, have passed several bills to re-open the shuttered government agencies. But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is refusing to let any of the House bills get a vote in the Senate, apparently because Trump has a history of torpedoing bipartisan solutions on this issue.
It's all about Trump's demand for $5.7 billion to build his border wall. It's what he campaigned on. In December, he said he'd be proud to take responsibility for the shut-down. It's a crisis that he created and perpetuates.
My thought is that none of this would be happening if these worthies, starting with Trump, McConnell, and their cronies, had their first loyalty to the country and the Constitution.
As we enter the third year of the Trumpocalypse, the house of cards is getting very fragile.
Carole McWilliams
Bayfield
