The ABCs of the federal government shutdown

WASHINGTON, United States — As a longtime resident of the Washington, D.C. area, I have had my share of federal government shutdowns. Apart from the light traffic and empty subway cars, DC area residents have little to cheer about when the government powers down. With over 300,000 federal workers in the DC metro area, a shutdown triggers a cascading economic and emotional toll —especially when paychecks stop and savings run dry.

But the pain doesn’t stop with federal employees. It spreads to the coffee shops, lunch counters, newsstands, mom and pop stores, and even the bootblack in the subway station. Government contractors who have business with the federal government have started furloughing, if not outrightly terminating, their employees. My wife, who works for the corporate office of a government contractor, has been asked to start utilizing some of her accrued vacation and leave time as company revenue falls to a trickle with no one on the other side writing the checks.

In DC, the Smithsonian Institution, which relies heavily on government subsidies, has shuttered all its museums; many of the national monuments have restricted access, and no one is picking up the trash or cleaning the bathrooms.

DC’s tourism economy is on life support, and so are the hotels, restaurants, trams, taxi and Uber drivers, etc., who rely on it. But you get the drift, shutdowns are bad news for the local economy, and conjure up unimaginable angst for those caught in the crossfire.

Since 1995, there have been six government shutdowns, one each under Clinton and Obama, and four under Donald Trump. The longest lasted 35 days, during Trump’s first term in office. The current one, now on its third week, shows no signs of ending.

The President, who prides himself on making deals, seems to enjoy flipping the switch off and waiting for the other side to blink. Except they never do.

In all prior shutdowns under his watch, Trump ended up waving the white flag — over immigration policy in January 2018, budget disagreements in February 2018, and border wall funding in January 2019.

He’s 0–3 in shutdown standoffs and may soon go 0–4 if Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) holds the line over Obamacare subsidy extensions.

It’s a pissing contest between Republicans and Democrats more than anything else. But before that, it is just kicking the can and hoping that down the line, Congress will pass its annual budget. You see, the Republican-led Congress has failed to pass all appropriations bills necessary to fully fund the federal government for fiscal year 2025. Instead, it has been relying on continuing resolutions (CR) — stopgap measures to fund government operations outside of passing a full year’s budget. It is like punting the football with no team ever crossing the fifty-yard line.

This time, the Democrats have refused to punt or kick the can. They rejected a Republican-backed CR that excludes guarantees to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies which help provide healthcare to the poorest Americans. Over 24 million people are enrolled through the ACA marketplace and could lose coverage.

When the House Republicans sent their CR to the Senate, it required 60 votes to pass — meaning nine Democrats had to support it. As of the last vote on 16 October, not one had. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) sent all Republican congressmen on vacation and the Democrats have no one to negotiate with. Meanwhile, the lawmakers still get paid — but federal workers don’t.

President Trump has threatened to cut what he called “democratic programs” to coerce senator votes. He also threatened mass firings of federal workers, but a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order halting layoffs at more than 30 federal agencies. The judge ruled that the layoffs were politically motivated and that Trump’s own statements about targeting “Democrat agencies” were evidence of unconstitutional intent.

Trump also said that not all federal workers will get backpay when the government reopens, although he is twisting arms to ensure that all military personnel are paid. Maybe this will get them to march in unison next time they parade in Washington. Never mind the squeaky tanks, he might fly all the generals back to Quantico, and they might even applaud him. They don’t work for free either.

Whatever the ending, history shows the party in power always gets blamed.

So here we are in week three of the shutdown. The World Series is just around the corner. Americans are hoping the shutdown ends before Halloween. Trick or treat?