by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist
Yesterday was the 35th miserable day of the partial government shutdown, an ugly episode that saw over 800,000 federal employees miss a month's worth of paychecks as they struggled to maintain their families and homes through the unexpected and unnecessary economic hardship.
Each day that the shutdown dragged on, the impact on the general American public became more pronounced, and eventually the pressure to end it was more than the shutdown's instigator, Donald John Trump, could bear - and he folded.
Certainly one factor that must have weighed heavily on Trump's mind was the situation with America's air travel industry, a major and much needed component of the overall national economy as well as a core component of our national transportation system. Air traffic controllers who were responsible for keeping the planes safe in the air, and TSA officials who were key to keeping air travel safe from terrorism, were impacted by the shutdown, and most were ordered back to work without benefit of pay. Many of them eventually began to skip work in order to work other jobs or to save having to pay babysitting and their own travel expenses. As those stressed out workers began missing work, lines at airports grew longer, and more and more Americans began to worry aloud about the safety of air travel.
Yesterday LaGuardia Airport in New York City, a damned big airport, closed for a couple of hours due to employees failing to report to work. Closed airports posed a direct and substantial threat to the American economy. It was starting to get serious.
Soon after the closure at LaGuardia in his home town Trump announced that he was prepared to sign a bill reopening the government for a limited period of three weeks without any funds included for his much ballyhooed border wall. Congress acted quickly and Trump signed the bill, and hopefully government will be back up and running by Monday.
Trump is, of course, proclaiming that he will again shut down the same part of the federal government in three weeks if Congress has not coughed up money for his vanity wall by the time the current extension runs out - and that may happen. But for the time being, 800,000 federal employees will get their back pay plus the mid-February paycheck, and (presumably) Trump will get to make his State of the Union speech in the House Chamber.
So, in three weeks all of the drama could start up again, OR Trump could have moved his agenda in another direction. Being swatted down by people like Ann Coulter and Nancy Pelosi is not nearly as much fun as playing a leisurely round or two of golf!
Fore!
Citizen Journalist
Yesterday was the 35th miserable day of the partial government shutdown, an ugly episode that saw over 800,000 federal employees miss a month's worth of paychecks as they struggled to maintain their families and homes through the unexpected and unnecessary economic hardship.
Each day that the shutdown dragged on, the impact on the general American public became more pronounced, and eventually the pressure to end it was more than the shutdown's instigator, Donald John Trump, could bear - and he folded.
Certainly one factor that must have weighed heavily on Trump's mind was the situation with America's air travel industry, a major and much needed component of the overall national economy as well as a core component of our national transportation system. Air traffic controllers who were responsible for keeping the planes safe in the air, and TSA officials who were key to keeping air travel safe from terrorism, were impacted by the shutdown, and most were ordered back to work without benefit of pay. Many of them eventually began to skip work in order to work other jobs or to save having to pay babysitting and their own travel expenses. As those stressed out workers began missing work, lines at airports grew longer, and more and more Americans began to worry aloud about the safety of air travel.
Yesterday LaGuardia Airport in New York City, a damned big airport, closed for a couple of hours due to employees failing to report to work. Closed airports posed a direct and substantial threat to the American economy. It was starting to get serious.
Soon after the closure at LaGuardia in his home town Trump announced that he was prepared to sign a bill reopening the government for a limited period of three weeks without any funds included for his much ballyhooed border wall. Congress acted quickly and Trump signed the bill, and hopefully government will be back up and running by Monday.
Trump is, of course, proclaiming that he will again shut down the same part of the federal government in three weeks if Congress has not coughed up money for his vanity wall by the time the current extension runs out - and that may happen. But for the time being, 800,000 federal employees will get their back pay plus the mid-February paycheck, and (presumably) Trump will get to make his State of the Union speech in the House Chamber.
So, in three weeks all of the drama could start up again, OR Trump could have moved his agenda in another direction. Being swatted down by people like Ann Coulter and Nancy Pelosi is not nearly as much fun as playing a leisurely round or two of golf!
Fore!
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