The Government Shutdown

(Getty Images)

(Getty Images)

Dulce Solis Hernandez, Writer

President Donald Trump decided to have a partial shutdown for the government on December 22, 2018, which lasted 35 days, due to the Democrats’ refusal to approve funding him with $5 billion so that he could continue building the border wall that divides the US and Mexico. Several were negatively affected by his actions.

 

Many who work as TSA agents have quit their jobs due to not being paid because of the shutdown. The ones who stuck with their job, though, still have to work without pay which seems unfair, since they’re doing a public service and protecting thousands of peoples’ safety yet not getting paid in return. Employees shouldn’t have to work long hours when they aren’t even getting paid at all. It’s just flat out wrong. I don’t agree with or I support Trump in any way, shape, or form so I certainly don’t agree with im shutting the government down just to get money for his wall.

 

The shutdown also affects our safety as the food being processed and sold isn’t being inspected properly. This can possibly put us in harm’s way. This was especially dangerous with some lettuce being bought in stores because people who purchased the item became ill. Because of this, the FDA had to publicly announce that they shouldn’t buy any lettuce until they were told that it was okay for them to do so. This was mainly caused because the shutdown forced them to quit their large safety inspection. As for smaller businesses, they have been losing money because of the shutdown as well. This is especially true for monuments and shops for national parks because there’s a chance that it might have been closed off for a duration of the shutdown.

 

The shutdown cost approximately $11 billion in taxpayers money and ended up closing some national parks. Federal funding such as loans were suspended, tax refunds were delayed, several thousands of employees were being furloughed, and a slope downhill with our economic growth.

 

The shutdown was just a way of Donald Trump throwing a temper tantrum because he didn’t get his way. Then, because he’s a person of power, the president of the United States, he was able to blow things out of proportion and create a huge unnecessary federal shutdown, which surpassed the one back in 1995- 1996 (when Clinton was president, which only lasted 21 days), and resulting in the longest federal government shutdown in history.