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While our "news" media is obsessed with trying to push the needle of who is to blame for the shutdown one way or another, let's consider the reality of the situation.
While it's convenient to tweet #TrumpShutdown and say Trump claimed it (he did), the truth is somewhat different if you're not a simpleton.
Who owns the shutdown? Trump does. Chuck and Nancy do. Mitch McConnell does. Any claim to the contrary is someone trying to spin you.
The appropriations bill has to be passed by the House (Dem-controlled), Senate (GOP-controlled), and signed by Trump. Until that funding bill is passed, the portion of the government that's not funded is shut down.
So what about the poor federal employees who are about to miss a paycheck? Or the contractors (non-gov) who might not be paid now or when this all ends? The Democrats keep talking about them. Who cares about them most?
The answer is neither. Neither side does enough to end the shutdown yet.
Trump cares more about getting funding for the border wall than ending the shutdown.
The Democrats care more about stopping the border wall funding than ending the shutdown.
Trump cares more about getting funding for the border wall than ending the shutdown.
The Democrats care more about stopping the border wall funding than ending the shutdown.
If either side caved in, the shutdown would end immediately. So what's going to change the situation? Politics. If Democrats can succeed in exploiting the stories of unpaid workers (who they actually don't care enough about to end the shutdown), maybe Trump will cave.
If Trump/GOP could somehow shift the blame to Democrats, maybe they would compromise on the wall. In my opinion, Trump has the stronger case here, but political perceptions will decide the outcome.
If we're going to have a shutdown battle where, yes, real people are going to be harmed financially at least temporarily, there had better be a good reason for it.
Trump was largely elected on the promise of resolving the issue of border security, which most of his voters see as a legitimate issue, at least bordering on a crisis. A case can be made that actual harm is being done to American citizens due to illegal immigration.
Allowing temporary financial harm to some people to fight to fix a border problem that causes financial and physical harm to other people is at least a defensible position on some level.
If Democrats are going to allow temporary financial harm to government workers to continue (they are), they should also be able to at least make a reasonable argument as to why the temporary suffering is necessary to prevent greater suffering.
That's where the Democrat case falls short. They have agreed to similar funding in the past. What we're left with is the impression that what they really want to take away from this fight is a win against Trump.
Democrats' desire to score a political win against Trump outweighs their feigned concern for the financial situation of government workers. Otherwise, if their real concern was workers, they'd at least be offering some kind of compromise to move towards ending the shutdown. /end
