Government Shutdown

Lost dollars, delayed medical care, and a toxic environment. Those are just some of the gruesome effects caused by the most extended shutdown in American history to ever exist.

Donald Trump is the sixth president who has declared a government shutdown due to the failure for the government to come in agreement to fund a wall between the Mexican and American border. The wall’s purpose is to protect the United States from incoming illegal immigrants. The president requests 5.7 billion dollars to fund the wall. December 22, 2018, is when the government officially shut down and remained closed until January 25.

This “leftover 800,000 federal workers—including Border Patrol officers, TSA agents, and air traffic controllers—either working without pay or sitting at home on furlough” (www.thoughtco.com/history-and-effects-of-government-shutdowns-3321444). Employees are devastated. A handful of them is being forced to use food stamps to survive. The shutdown has also resulted in over $400 million in lost revenue. About 400,000 eligible citizens were delayed in applying for the Medicare program. New patients were denied from the clinical research at the National Institutes of Health clinical center. FDA workers were not doing their job since there was no income for them, so food slowly started getting recalled. Toxic waste sites postponed work, so landfill was accumulating quickly and made our environment more hazardous.

Two Wheeler teachers share their view on the shutdown and its effects on the economy. Mr. McDowell, social studies teacher, shares, “Based on the estimates, the shutdown is not going to affect us for a little while. It is compounded with the trade world of China right now. The trade world of China plus the government shutdown means we are going to have severe issues not this year but next year. Prices of crops and gasoline are going to go up, and it is not going to be a fun situation.” While Mr. Berwanger, engineering teacher, states, “I am not as worried about the economy as much as I am for the people, employees not getting paid or having their job is unfortunate.”

Two Wildcats share whether they think the wall is worth the money spent, and Jeremy Payne (11)replied “No because I can buy a ladder and go over the wall and spend only 20 dollars while the wall is 5 billion dollars. I can also build a tunnel underneath. It is pointless.” Lastly, Ethan Sunny (11) thinks the money Trump is trying to acquire is not worth it because “it is going to be very ineffective, they can better spend the money on actual security like cameras or more border patrol agents.”