To Shut Down Or Not To Shut Down...

[Lord Jim]

Is snow removal in DC typically a federal thing?

No, it's a city government service.

[Joe Guy]

Now Trump can add to his record that he has caused the longest government shutdown ever in the history of the USA. How about that? He actually accomplished something big that he doesn't have to lie about.

[Burning Petard]

But then again, Washington DC does not exist except as a 'federal thing'

snailgate

[Econoline]

[Lord Jim]

And now a new report from that intrepid investigative journalist, Mr. Randy Rainbow:

[MajGenl.Meade]

Memory Lane 2011:

NBC’s MEREDITH VIEIRA: So if there were a partial shutdown of the government come Friday, that would be OK with you.

TRUMP: In my opinion – you know, I hear the Democrats are going to be blamed and the Republicans are going to be blamed. I actually think the president would be blamed.

If there is a shutdown, and it’s not going to be a horrible shutdown because, as you know, things will sort of keep going… If there is a shutdown I think it would be a tremendously negative mark on the president of the United States. He’s the one that has to get people together.

I’m a deal man. I’ve made hundreds and hundreds of deals and transactions. He never did deals before. How can you expect a man that’s not a deal man that never did a deal, other than frankly becoming president of the United States, he never did a deal, how’s he going to corral all these people to get them to do a deal?”

Asked how he would prevent a shutdown, Trump boasted, “I would get everybody together and we’d have a budget and it would get done.” Reminded that the relevant officials had already gotten together, he added, “[T]hey don’t have the right leader. You don’t have the right leader.”

[Lord Jim]

“[T]hey don’t have the right leader. You don’t have the right leader.”

[Lord Jim]

Well, at least it will make impeaching him easier:

Shutdown’s Economic Damage Starts to Pile Up, Threatening an End to Growth

WASHINGTON — The partial government shutdown is inflicting far greater damage on the United States economy than previously estimated, the White House acknowledged on Tuesday, as President Trump’s economists doubled projections of how much economic growth is being lost each week the standoff with Democrats continues.

The revised estimates from the Council of Economic Advisers show that the shutdown, now in its fourth week, is beginning to have real economic consequences. The analysis, and other projections from outside the White House, suggests that the shutdown has already weighed significantly on growth and could ultimately push the United States economy into a contraction.

While Vice President Mike Pence previously played down the shutdown’s effects amid a “roaring” economy, White House officials are now cautioning Mr. Trump about the toll it could take on a sustained economic expansion. Mr. Trump, who has hitched his political success to the economy, also faces other economic headwinds, including slowing global growth, a trade war with China and the waning effects of a $1.5 trillion tax cut.

To blunt the shutdown’s effects, the administration on Tuesday called tens of thousands of employees back to work, without pay, to process tax returns, ensure flight safety and inspect food and drugs. But some people involved in the shutdown discussions in the White House have privately said they anticipate that Mr. Trump will grow anxious about the economic impact in the coming days, accelerating an end to the stalemate. Others close to the president believe Mr. Trump has leverage and are encouraging him to stand by his demands.

For now, the White House shows no signs of being ready to relent, and Kevin Hassett, the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, continued to blame Democrats for the economic damage.

“Congress needs to look at the harms that we’re talking about,” Mr. Hassett said, “and address them.”

Mr. Hassett said on Tuesday that the administration now calculates that the shutdown reduces quarterly economic growth by 0.13 percentage points for every week that it lasts — the cumulative effect of lost work from contractors and furloughed federal employees who are not getting paid and who are investing and spending less as a result. That means that the economy has already lost nearly half a percentage point of growth from the four-week shutdown. (Last year, economic growth for the first quarter totaled 2.2 percent.)

Mr. Hassett, attempting to illustrate the pain caused by the shutdown, said on Tuesday that one of his furloughed staff members had begun driving for Uber to make ends meet.

Mr. Trump has demanded that Democrats, who control the House of Representatives, include $5.7 billion for a border wall in any measure to fund the government. Democrats have refused and, along with some Republicans, have tried to persuade the president to reopen the government and negotiate border security afterward. The House has passed several bills to fund parts of the government, including the Internal Revenue Service, that are not related to border security. Senate Republicans have declined to schedule votes on those bills.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/15/us/p ... onomy.html

[Lord Jim]

Well wadda ya know...

There actually is at least one tangible benefit from the shutdown:

Nancy Pelosi Shuts Down Trump’s State of the Union

The House speaker wrote a letter uninviting the president from the State of the Union address, citing the government shutdown

President Trump was scheduled to give the annual State of the Union address on January 29th. That’s no longer happening.

As the government continues to operate under a partial shutdown, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) on Wednesday uninvited the president from delivering the address. Pelosi wrote that expending government resources to ensure the event’s security would be inappropriate considering that both the Secret Service and the Department of Homeland Security are currently without funding.

“Sadly, given the security concerns and unless the government re-opens this week, I suggest that we work together to determine another suitable date after government has re-opened for this address or for you to consider delivering your State of the Union in writing to the Congress on January 29th.”

The letter from Pelosi is sure to irk the White House, which has yet to respond publicly. CNN’s Kaitlin Collins reported on Wednesday that “Stephen Miller and other speechwriters have been working on Trump’s address for weeks” and that they “were prepared to craft it around the government shutdown.”

Trump’s State of the Union message would have undoubtedly resembled the address he delivered last week from the Oval Office, when he tried to sell the nation on the need for a border wall mostly by describing instances of illegal immigrants murdering Americans in graphic detail.[Gee, it would be an awful shame not have that again...]

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/p ... on-779927/

Link to the full text of Pelosi's letter:

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/01/ ... er-1104906

[BoSoxGal]

Brava!

[Big RR]

I wouldn't watch it anyway, but it makes sense to postpone it.

[Burning Petard]

'bout time this ritual went back to its constitutional origin. POTUS is required to send congress an annual report. That is all it needs to be. The big media photo-op is sheer political theater. Does anybody ever ask why the Supremes are there for this rite?

I suppose if POTUS really believes it is important for the American People to hear it directly from his lips. he could read it in front of the tv cameras while sitting in the oval office. But that would be pointless with out the pause every 45 seconds while his acolytes in the House chamber give him a standing ovation for his divine wisdom.

snailgate

[BoSoxGal]

I don’t agree with that - it’s a tradition worth keeping, I think. When the government’s open.

[Burning Petard]

Tradition? Only since they brought in the tv cameras. The real tradition is for the president to send a nice folder via White House Messenger to Congress and that is the end of it.
I agree it should be re-scheduled. Perhaps the day after POTUS releases is tax reports
snailgate.

[liberty]

This is a Democrat government shut down. The Democrats are not willing to spend five billion dollars to open the government; hell I bet they waste more than that on corruption. That is pocket change for the federal government. And, this idea that a border wall is immoral do you think the average American believes that? What a load of crap. I don’t remember any Democrats calling for the Berlin wall to be torn down.

[Big RR]

Liberty--Or is it that the idiotic president cannot give up on an ineffective means of curtailing crossing of the border to the tune of a complete waste of $5 billion dollars because--well just because he wants to prove he can do it.

Somehow I'd bet this is the real reason.

BSG--I'd be willing to subbstitute a writtent report for the cheereading that the SOTU has become.

[RayThom]

Bigger Walls = Bigger Tunnels

https://www.msnbc.com/morning-joe/watch ... 6848323856

[Big RR]

Or bigger ropes and ladders.

But I think Trump equates a big wall with big balls--he has to constantly justify his inadequacies.

[Sue U]

Regardless of whether you believe we are being overrun by an invasion of criminal hordes of swarthy Spanishes, Trump's wall can never be built: it is simply not feasible from an engineering standpoint, and it is not feasible from a constitutional/legal standpoint. It is a simplistic and profoundly stupid concept aimed at simple and profoundly stupid people, and it has been a sham and a con from Day One. You know what $5 billion would buy? Clean drinking water for Flint, MI and then some. If it's such a trivial amount of money, why don't we spend it there?

[Burning Petard]

The news cycle has been focused since mid 2016 on Donald Trump's stupid dog tricks. Meanwhile significant policy changes are warping every aspect of out social contract. Money for Flint MI drinking water? The gutting of the EPA both in personnel and regulations means that it isn't just Flint any more. Safe drinking water is a problem all over the country. HUD is shrinking into irrelevance. The FDA is run by business managers and science is ignored.

snailgate.