Trump's shutdown breaks all records
The management crisis that broke out in the United States at the end of 2018 with the temporary cessation of funding for the federal government (shutdown) has been going on for almost three weeks and is not going to stop.
The reason for Donald Trump's latest conflict with his political opponents is that the Democratic majority of the House of Representatives, supported by Wall Street financial tycoons, are trying to force Trump to roll back his economic policies aimed at stimulating and reviving America's industrial production in order to switch to a tough regime. budget savings.
One of Trump's major battles with the globalists was the fight over funding for the construction of a $5,6 billion wall on the Mexican border - despite the fact that the Senate is ready to allocate only $1,6 billion from the largesse.
Evil tongues, however, claim that the amount of $5,6 billion is not final, and that the construction of the fence with all the necessary equipment, roads and facilities will gobble up at least $22 billion from the US budget.
Currently, funding for the construction of the Great Wall of America is blocked, but Trump, in retaliation, used the leverage given to him to cut off funding for some federal agencies.
Since December 22, 2018, about 25% of government institutions have not received money in full. Among them are the Department of Homeland Security (the main one in the fight against terrorism on its territory), the Department of Justice (of which the FBI is an integral part), the Department of Construction, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Commerce, the Ministry of Internal Affairs (the department deals with programs related to the indigenous people of America and the Hawaiian Islands and their lands), the Ministry of Finance and a number of large federal programs.
Almost a million-strong army of officials and civil servants has been sent on indefinite unpaid leave. The war began during the Christmas holidays, when huge amounts of money are made in trade and services. Ordinary Americans are also suffering, for whom problems have arisen with repaying loans, paying for education and medical care.
American cities face the threat of becoming cesspools as city services are reduced to underfunding.
The American Skilled Workers Union, which has 400 members, intends to sue the Trump administration for violating the Fair Labor Standards Act.
Social programs aimed at providing free food to low-income Americans are under threat. The Federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in the United States distributes food stamps to low-income groups. More than 19 million American households (39 million people) rely on government rationing. Almost 1,5 million veterans and disabled war veterans are included in this program.
The average cost of a food assistance package is $245,28 per month. The SNAP program has already been cut, and in February its budget will be $3 billion compared to $4,8 billion per month before the shutdown. In this scenario, SNAP will reportedly be forced to lay off about 95% of its employees. And if the Republicans do not reach an agreement with the Democrats in March, the US Federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program will finally die in convulsions.
Cutting off SNAP funding won't just hurt the poor. Grocery store chains, manufacturers and wholesalers involved in the federal food assistance program for the poor will suffer catastrophic losses.
Payments to Indian reservations have also been stopped, in some of which money from the federal treasury forms the basis of the local budget.
The icing on the cake of the conflict between Trump and his democratic enemies is that large sections of Americans have become hostages to fulfilling election promises at any cost, on the one hand, and a fierce desire to respect the rights of people who arrived in the United States illegally, on the other.
Trump has already stated that he is ready to continue the shutdown policy until the Democrats capitulate and give him as much money as is necessary to build the wall. To achieve this goal, Trump is ready to declare a state of emergency in the country and legally bypass the Senate, Congress and the bald devil by directly requesting the necessary amount from the Pentagon budget. True, in this case the Supreme Court may stand in his way.
In general, the nozzles of all parties to the conflict are red-hot, no one wants to look like a weakling, and everyone is ready to fight to the bitter end at the expense of the population.
On January 10, it became known that Trump finally refused to bend and left the negotiating table with Democratic leaders in the Senate and Congress Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi. The magnificent Donald waved his hand at his opponents and defiantly departed for the border with Mexico to personally inspect his defensive brainchild in a state of unfinished construction.
Observers, however, are inclined to see in the depths of the shutdown more compelling reasons than just squabbles with the construction of a fence around a cowboy ranch.
Against the backdrop of the ongoing trade war with China, in the fall of 2018, world markets experienced a significant drop, threatening the United States with deepening economic imbalances. A number of observers predict a collapse of the stock market and even the American economy spinning out of control. A mutual understanding has been reached among the American financial elite that the dollar must remain strong, and therefore it is necessary to take restrictive measures against any steps of the American executive branch that could negatively affect the state of the stock market, which is currently contraindicated for any sudden movements.
Even simpler: the US financial elites took radical measures to contain the budget deficit, which had long ago assumed alarming proportions and was increasingly spiraling out of control. This process explains well the reasons why the US authorities are ready to wage war, regardless of the fate of a huge army of government employees and the poor.
The last “record” for the duration of a shutdown of 21 days was set by Bill Clinton in 1996. But Trump’s shutdown for No. 20 seems to be breaking all records for duration and negative consequences in the entire history of the United States...
Trump's shutdown breaks all records.