I can’t believe that I once again find myself feeling the need to tackle this red herring and deal with the hysteria of a government shutdown as something catastrophic.  First, the government cannot shut down completely because at least 75% of it is already funded.  So, please stop drinking the Kool-Aid and breathing the toxic air of the Media and those following extreme liberalism.  If we would all take a deep breath and do even a cursory amount of research we’d know this is simply a political tool used by both sides to hype the public.  It is being used today by those on the Left to cause needless alarm.

Unless the government was to remain shut down beyond the fiscal year 2019 it will not shut down.  Yes, parts of it will have a break in function and some federal employees will have their paychecks delayed but not necessarily deleted.  If you check you will find that on September 21, 2018, the President signed a “minibus” appropriations law that funded the Department of Energy; Military Construction and Veterans Affairs; and the Legislative Branch for the entire 2019 fiscal year.  That will not expire until September 30, 2019.  One week later he signed another “minibus” law funding the Departments of Defense, Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education through the same fiscal year.  That is most of the government. 

In fact, House Appropriations Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NJ) said regarding those signings that “Congress will have enacted the majority of all discretionary spending for the year, 75%, prior to the end of the fiscal year, an accomplishment that hasn’t occurred in over two decades.”  The federal discretionary budget for the fiscal year 2019 is a whopping $1.26 Trillion and with those two signings, $931 Billion of it has been appropriated.  That only leaves $314 Billion.  Yet, the Democrats and Media are acting as if, Trump’s threat would destroy the entire nation and the government would screech to a halt on all levels.  That was and is a blatant lie and they know it.  Well, maybe they don’t but they should know it.

Only non-essential government personnel won’t be able to come to work.  Border Patrol Agents are considered essential personnel will still work even though the Department of Homeland Security will not be funded. The only reason DHS is not funded is because of the impasse in Congress because of the Democrats refusal to fund the Border Wall.  They were willing to hold up and jeopardize DHS for $5 Billion requested for the Border Wall.  How’s that for endangering Americans?  Some of the other departments not funded are Transportation, Housing and Urban Development; Interior and Environment; Commerce, Justice, and Science; State; Financial Services and Agriculture.

Nobody likes to be told that they are non-essential or important enough to be kept at their post during a shutdown.  That is a possibly a personal ego thing, but it also affects their bottom line in the sense that they don’t get their pay when expected but will get it once the shutdown is over.  There are 12 appropriations bills that determine the funding for each of the government subcommittees.  A partial government shutdown occurs if Congress does not pass appropriations bills for the fiscal year or the president refuses to sign them once passed.  One of the agencies that would be affected is the Internal Revenue Service.  Do we really mind?  Yes, because the part of the IRS that verifies social security numbers would not function and that could affect people on many levels. 

It affects us, but it is not catastrophic as the Democrats and some Republicans would have us believe.  One factor in all this threatened ‘shutdown’ that the media and the Left refuse to discuss is the fact that Border Security which includes a Border Wall and beefed up Border Security is part of the Presidents package.  The Democrats are willing to see the non-essential elements of a government shutdown in their resistance to a Border Wall.  Why?  I can’t answer that question except by saying some of them, if not most of them do not seem to mind having a porous border.  Some, including Bernie Sanders, do not seem to think that Illegal Immigration is Illegal.  Most of the Democratic Establishment views the Illegals as Future or even Current Democrat votes.  With the voter fraud by illegals in 2018 and 2016 that assertion is not difficult to defend as being a valid charge.

The government is far too bloated now and this would be a wonderful opportunity to revisit how we budget.  We use a baseline budgetary process where every department gets an automatic increase each year of approximately 10%.  The Democrats and Republicans have from time to time agreed to make the increase only 5% and claimed they cut the budget.  The reality is the budget grew by whatever percentage they increased from the previous year.

We, in my view, need to move to a zero-based budgetary process where every department and foreign aid entity begins at $0.00 (ZERO) and has to offer a valid reason for whatever they receive.  If we did that, we could reduce the size of government, the deficit, and thereby the national debt.  Will politicians on either side of the aisle agree to that?  Not in this lifetime and not so long as they can use our money to solidify their position and power and/or the bottom lines.  I am less concerned about a so-called government shutdown than I am about the deficit and debt. 

God bless you and God bless America!