You are fired! And this time I mean it!

You are fired! And this time I mean it!

As per usual, in these days of continuing resolutions we are again faced with the possibility of a government “shutdown”. Mind you, the government doesn’t really shutdown but “nonessential” government services are suspended. I have always said that if they are nonessential then why are they needed in the first place? The answer is that they extend the government’s reach and power but otherwise are just a subsidy from some of us to the rest of us. It also keeps the lobbyists employed and gives government employees something to do. In the past when these shutdowns have occurred, the government always shuts down stuff intended to inconvenience or anger people like closing museums and access to national parks.

This time it is a bit different since Trump is in the White House. He and his aides have passed another continuing resolution in the House (with no democrat votes) and it is stalled in the Senate where it takes 60 votes to overcome a filibuster. The republicans only have 53 senators and Rand Paul (no surprise) has pledged to vote against it since it does not reduce the level of government spending. The democrat leadership, Chuck Schumer in the Senate and Hakeem Jeffries in the House (both New York democrats) have threaten to shut down the government. Trump says go ahead because that is exactly what I want you to do.

Why? Because it offers him the opportunity to further pare federal government employment. To date Trump has terminated 300,000 federal workers. But with a workforce of over 3.8 million, he wants to cut even more. In the past, there have always been negotiations between the two parties. No more. The republicans have totally cut out the democrats saying that their demands are laughable and would increase Federal spending by $1 trillion over the next decade. The democrats want to make permanent the Biden expansion of health care which the republicans reject. Mind you, like all continuing resolutions, this is only a stop gap measure that expires in seven months.

The republicans say that funding will continue for “essential” services such as the military, social security, medicare, Medicaid, the Veterans Health administration, law enforcement and air traffic controllers. I wonder if the tariff bean counters are considered “essential”? In the past federal workers were furloughed and returned to work with back pay – a paid vacation! This time not so much. The president has instructed his budget office director Russ Vought to tell the federal agencies to draw up plans to permanently reduce their workforce by firing those workers in programs that have no current funding, have no outside funding source, and that are “not consistent with the President’s priorities.” These workers would not be rehired – at least not by this administration.

Schumer says that if this occurs the democrats would sue (naturally) to protect their constituents (the vast majority of federal employees are democrats) and Jeffries has called Vought a “malignant political hack.” So much for niceties. Schumer is probably still smarting from all the criticism from the left when he voted for the previous CR. Some say he is vulnerable to a challenge from AOC and is trying to hold together his base. Regardless neither he nor Jeffries appear to back down meaning that other more “moderate” democrats – if they really exist – will have to vote to keep the government running and their constituents from being fired.

Life sure is more interesting with this president.