A 'kamikaze' shutdown: when ideology matters more than people
Neither major party is budging on its positions and accusations of the opposition as the effects of underfunding continue to multiply in the face of public concern over the longest government shutdown in history.
Chuck Schumer and Donald Trump in 2024
The government shutdown, the longest ever in history, shows no sign of ending, fueling public frustration and concern. Social benefits such as SNAPS and unemployment benefits are in jeopardy and the FAA has announced a reduction in flights due to the air traffic controllers' situation as of Friday.
However, the results of the elections of 4-N appear to have pushed any resolution even further out of reach, as Democrats won a landslide victory, not least because of their steely refusal to yield to the continuing resolution proposed by the GOP in the Senate.
An attitude that Donald Trump called "kamikaze" last Wednesday, to again clamor for the elimination of the filibuster that would allow the conservative majority in the Upper House to end the shutdown and approve all the measures of his Administration that are blocked by Democratic senators.
"I think these guys are kamikaze. They will bring the country down if they have to."
"I just got back from Japan. I talked about the kamikaze pilots. I think these guys are kamikaze. They will shoot down the country if they have to," he assured at a breakfast meeting at the White House.
Later, at last year's election victory anniversary celebration, he would again charge against Chuck Schumer and Blue Party leaders, calling on them to step up and reopen the government for the good of citizens, accusing them of putting illegal immigrants ahead of U.S. citizens:
"It is time for Chuck Schumer and the Radical Democrat Congress to stop playing games with peoples' lives and to pass a clean funding bill, that they've done 30 times before — and to reopen government IMMEDIATELY!"
"Demand free healthcare for illegal immigrants..."
In addition, Trump denounced that "With the reckless Democrat Shutdown, virtually every Democrat in Congress has voted to hold the American People hostage in an effort to extort hundreds of billions of dollars in new spending. They're demanding free healthcare for illegal aliens..."
"The Radical Left Democrats are causing millions of Americans who depend on food stamps to go without benefits, they’re forcing federal workers to go without paychecks, and they're stranding thousands of travelers at airports!" he insisted.
Employees without pay, welfare benefits at risk and flights canceled
After 37 days, one million federal workers have not received their paychecks as a result of the government's lack of funding, and it is unclear whether they will receive the money they have missed, the White House warned.
Since November 1, beneficiaries of the SNAPS program, which the executive branch has announced an initiative to partially fund, have also been affected. Unemployment benefits are now in jeopardy.
On Wednesday, the Transportation secretary announced a 10% reduction in flights in 40 "high traffic areas" as a result of the lack of air traffic controllers.
Democratic roadblock
For his part, Schumer again offered Trump to sit down and negotiate the government shutdown, something the president already rejected previously before the Democrats give the green light to the Republican proposal to end the shutdown.
The Senate Democratic minority leader again accused the president of being to blame for the situation for his cuts that would affect citizens' health care and of "viciously" using the "hunger" of SNAPS recipients to twist Democrats' arm.
Visibly emboldened by the 4-N result, Schumer called on Trump to turn his policies around: "Democrats swept last night statewide and local races across the country. Why? Because Americans are fed up with the failed Republican agenda. They know Democrats are fighting to lower costs and fighting for them."
Senate Democrats called for reopening the government, but were overruled
Although other senators, such as Maggie Hassan, showed signs of being receptive to the initiative, the proposal received a harsh rejection from party leaders in the upper chamber in a tense meeting, in which as many as 8 Democratic congressmen favored ending the shutdown, according to The Hill.
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