I do think both sides are at fault. I have my doubts about the wall, but $5 billion is nothing compared to the entire federal budget. A rounding error, so to say. Obviously if the Dems wanted to they could pass a spending bill and reopen the government, but this is now all about Nancy and Chuck vs The Donald.
No, it isn't about the money. There are dozens of worthwhile programs to spend $5B on, but that's not one of them. This is about the wall itself, and what it represents: An overly simplistic solution to a "problem" that largely does not exist--News flash: Most illegal immigrants come here legally on a plane. They are white Irish guys working on construction sites in Boston, or Indian software engineers, or other people who have overstayed their visas. They do not fit the racist, fear mongering profile that Trump is always spouting off. Dems don't want the wall because it is stupid, doesn't work and is racist. Is that a good enough reason not to have it? Oh wait, didn't trump just tell a group of struggling farmers that he was OK with letting some illegals in so they could work on their farms?
The wall as envisaged by Trump is going to cost a lot more than $5B. Plus it's going to incur ongoing maintenance costs. And given it will be largely ineffective anyway, maybe we should spend the "rounding error" on something more useful?
78% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, so, yes, missing a single paycheck was enough to make her ration her insulin shots. It is also likely that she started rationing her insulin shots prior to the latest paycheck because she could see that her bank account was starting to empty out. https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/24/most-americans-live-paycheck-to-paycheck.html
What, she couldn't just ask her father for a "small" loan of [Dr. Evil puts pinky to mouth]One Million Dollars[/Dr. Evil puts pinky to mouth]?
The house has passed the same spending bill that the Republican senate passed at the end of December. So all the Senate has to do is pass the same bill again and sent it to the white house to get Trump to veto it. then they have to see if they have enough votes to over ride the veto. So right now it is Mich McConnell that is creating the government shutdown.
I have high suspicions on the story and the timing. This is is (or will be) the longest shutdown, but it is not the first, that she runs out of such necessary medicine right away seems more fishy than Vfish. Is she a new employee? what did she do during the last shutdown (what 4 years ago)?
I don't even think a physical barrier is feasible considering the actual border is mostly river and, according the Wiki, the division comes at the deepest point of the river. What is going on is political theater at it's worst, each side using the other to make the partisan divide worse that it already was, if that is even possible anymore.
Besides, the republicans have Senate, House and Presidency for almost two years and did not pass any provision on wall funding. Wall Funding only became an issue around October, when fear-mongering about immigration was the main election tactic by the GOP. Only that Trump (and Kellyfish) is too stupid to understand that he lost that battle 2 months ago.
Previous shutdowns haven't lasted this long and it is general practice that federal employees' are paid their lost pay at the end of the shutdown, so running out of money to pay for new insulin may not have been an issue in the last shutdown. She may also not have been diabetic, or maybe something happened to wipe out her savings, or, etc, etc. That being said, the story is definitely a "plant" of some sort. That doesn't mean it isn't real, but it was likely one that was ready to be sent to reporters once the shutdown extended beyond Friday.
Trump had a deal arranged with the House and Senate. At the last moment, he said he wanted more. He offered nothing in exchange for the more that he demanded. Now he is aggressively attacking the people who won't give him more for nothing. Churchill observed a guy who negotiated like that back in his day, and correctly predicted failure for those who tried to strike deals with him. If eventually you give, you won't ever get anything back. Rather, you will embolden him to do it again and again and again. The more he gets, the more he will want. Yeah I guess somebody can argue that both sides are doing it, in fact millions of Trump supporters are, but that is not reality.
Forget the wall and lets get back to my original point which was that contrary to Feyenoord's implication that the the shutdown and our healthcare debates should be intertwined because.... well... well because Hitler. |rolleyes| The article he posted to make his flawed connection was obviously written to tug on heart strings to invoke a reaction. Unlike Federal paychecks, healthcare benefits are not affected by the shutdown and this furloughed employee has had a stable Federal job for 6 years and yet couldn't plan far enough ahead to make it one day without her paycheck. I realize many Americans live paycheck to paycheck, but if you have a long term, safe job and can see shutdown coming perhaps it would be a good idea to put a little away to be able to get through the dry spell?
Again, the GOP had President, Senate, House for almost 2 years. Questions: 1. Why didn't they pass wall funding during that period? 2. Why hasn't Mitch McConnell allow a vote on resolutions passed by the House this year? He knows he can vote and send that to the President, right? 2. If lets say Dems cede and pass funding wall, what would stop Trump and McConnell from doing the same thing over and over? You know Trump has a history of botching negotiations that way, right?
The Democratic house passed proposals last week to re-open the government. McConnell has blocked a package by the senate democrats on the grounds that Trump would veto it. If the senate won't over-ride the veto, it's on Republicans. If the Republicans in the senate are refusing to work with Democrats in the Senate, that's also in the Republicans. If the Democrats are exploiting this, it's only because the Republicans are refusing to do their constitutionally proscribed jobs, but rather are putting party ahead of country,.
I did and found out you abuse it as he has been seeing for some time. He formulated it as a tendency to compare people with nazis without giving a justification. However he sees his "law"is being abused by people using it to dodge criticism. It's the same as people using "whataboutism". So as I gave a justification for the comparison you were wrong and are now on Godwin's ignore list.