It is now the eighth day since the U.S. government shutdown, and the White House is still screaming to the outside world that Trump has taken the “breaking food” threat not to compromise with the Democrats or pay government employees.
The U.S. federal government has been shut down for a whole week since October 1. The two parties in Congress are deadlocked on the budget issue. The Senate tried five times to pass the budget in just seven days, but all failed. The House of Representatives simply had a "holiday" and adjourned until the 14th.
Workers don't get paid, airport flights are paralyzed, farmer subsidies are interrupted, and more than 2 million Americans are caught in the reality of existential anxiety。 Trump said the shutdown was "good", but the White House economic adviser claimed that the government lost as much as $15 billion a week during the shutdown.
People in trouble
Once the federal government was shut down, the first to "cut off" were those grassroots positions. Today, more than 2 million employees in the U.S. government are affected, of which 750,000 have been forcibly suspended. Although the remaining 1.3 million are still working, their wages are temporarily not available. Among these 1.3 million people, there are also key "must-take" roles such as military personnel, air traffic controllers, and homeland security personnel.
It stands to reason that soldiers are the "last line of defense" in the state machine, but in this shutdown, they also became "unpaid households". The U.S. Navy offers military grants online, applies for unemployment benefits, or goes to the Red Cross for help.
The transportation system collapsed. The air traffic control post at Los Angeles Burbank Airport was empty for half a day, and the air traffic control center in Nashville was simply closed for five hours, causing widespread delays in flights across the country.
These public services were supposed to be the "chassis" for the stable operation of the country, but they were lost in the political tug. A budget battle has "cut off" the most basic social operating system and exposed the fragility of the American public service system to withstand shocks.
Party escalation
Trump has never played by common sense, but this time his statement was even more surprising. He publicly stated that the government shutdown was "beneficial" and could help him advance his organizational layoffs plan.
He also pointed the finger directly at the Democratic Party, calling it a "suicide attack".In his logic, the shutdown is not a Republican problem, but a result of the Democratic Party's unwillingness to compromise. The White House press secretary also gave a clear attitude, saying that layoffs and budget cuts were forced by the Democratic Party.
The Office of Management and Budget has drawn up plans to cut spending and is preparing to “cut off” some of the Democratic-led projects, including environmental protection, healthcare, and education.
The Republican Party tried to suppress the allocation of political resources of its opponents through this lockout.
But people's feelings are completely different. According to recent polls, only 33% of Americans believe the government is capable of resolving the current political impasse, and 41% already have doubts about the functioning of the * system. Analysts have pointed out that the U.S. party dispute has evolved from traditional policy differences to a psychological game.This hostile politics is consuming the credibility of the system a bit.
If even government wages can become a bargaining chip in the struggle between the two parties, what can we use next to maintain basic trust among the people?
Systemic fracture
In this political storm, the ones most easily ignored are those groups that have no say. Take American farmers for example. Originally, they faced the problem of rising agricultural machinery prices and blocked exports due to the tariff war, and were in urgent need of US$12 billion in government subsidies. But now, the subsidy plan has been shelved indefinitely.
Purdue University experts are straightforward, now the farmers are pressured by the market on the one hand, while the government is "broken milk", is simply frozen.
In cities, people who rely on food stamps, housing subsidies and school lunch plans are also in trouble. Although the supply of these projects is not cut off immediately, once the capital reserves are exhausted, local governments must "cover the bottom" expenditures. From New York to Chicago, multiple states have begun using emergency budgets to fill gaps in federal funding.
Not only that, delays in drug approval, suspension of scientific research projects, and blockages of social security services... These seemingly "high-end" issues will actually affect ordinary people. For example, new drugs cannot be marketed, and cancer patients will have to wait longer; for example, scientific research is stagnant, vaccine development will be postponed.
This stagnation is a systematic breakthrough resulting from a series of policy delays. For vulnerable groups, this breakthrough is more terrifying than a temporary breakdown, because it directly affects the bottom line of survival.
Reminders behind the back.
This is not the first government shutdown in the United States.In the past few decades, large and small shutdowns have repeatedly occurred, each time accompanied by intense party struggles, budget cuts, and public disappointment.
If it is said that the previous stagnation also means the so-called "system game", then the current drama is more like a naked political dispute. And the lives of the people, the operation of the country, the perception of the international community, all become the accompanying loss of this game.
The shutdown of the U.S. government has become a “systemic inertia.”
More importantly, the shutdown also sounded the alarm clock for other democracies, and the strategic balance between institutional design and extreme confrontation is very important.
Trump's refusal to pay wages, put it in the context of national governance, shows that the U.S. political bottom line is being pushed up little by little and then disappearing little by little.
When this shutdown ends, no one can say exactly.The mess it leaves will be fermented in American society for a long time.
Trump also spoke about “global leadership, or look back at the soldiers who don’t pay their own wages, the farmers who don’t get subsidies, and the ordinary people who can’t get on the plane.”
Reference information: Trump blames the government shutdown on the Democratic Party 2019-01-10 02:31· New York Times
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