What does Government Healthcare, the Education Department, the Food and Drug Administration, and the men and women serving our country all have in common? They are all out of funding due to Congress’ arguments on the purpose of their money.
A government shutdown freezes all funding for programs and agencies funded by the federal government. The legislative branch sets a yearly budget for all the recipients of federal dollars before the deadline arrives to avoid a shutdown. Otherwise, temporary funding measures can be passed, which fund the government for a few weeks. No resolution came to pass this year, Congress did not come together to agree on where the money should flow, and the fall out will be severe.
Congress has needed to formally approve funding measures for federally funded agencies since 1980, after a Justice Department legal case determined the agencies could not run during a funding gap. This legal opinion created the possibility of the government shutting down. The government has since been through 14 shutdowns: Eight throughout the 1980s under the Reagan Administration, one in 1990, two in 1995 under Clinton, one in 2013, and two in 2018 with the longest shutdown lasting 33 days which began on Dec. 22, 2018.
Federal jobs are always on the front lines of the shutdown. When funding is cut, workers are selected based on the importance of their work. D.E.A. agents and T.S.A. workers are always kept on their jobs, but their pay is withheld until the shutdown is over. While workers in agencies such as Social Security are removed from their workplaces until the shutdown ends. President Trump wants to change the precedent on that matter. Federal Workers deserve payment for their work, the D.E.A. keeps us safe from drug trafficking, and the T.S.A. protects flights from terrorist attacks and technical problems. Cutting their pay through any means is not a conservative approach to funding problems.
Current polls show voters placing the blame for the shutdown on Republicans. PBS and national polls show 39% of voters holding Republicans accountable for the shutdown, and 30% hold Democrats accountable. Republicans control the House and Senate, but 60 Senate votes are needed to pass the spending bill, which is more than the Republican majority possesses. At the same time, Democratic Senate leaders are not agreeing to the spending measure due to the massive GOP backed cuts to Medicare and Medicaid. Republicans try to justify cuts through their messaging program backed around the idea of “illegal immigrants using federal healthcare.”
No one should stand for the massive Medicare cuts. The ends do not justify the means. Cutting healthcare assistance for millions of working class Americans to somehow terminate care for illegal immigrants creates more problems than solutions. Especially when the means of the “illegal immigrant crisis” might not even exist.
According to K.F.F. Health Research, immigrants must be lawfully present and have special status given after five years spent living and working in the U.S. to qualify for federal healthcare coverage. There is one exemption to this restriction: Medicaid coverage used in the event of an emergency. Undocumented immigrants or legal immigrants who haven’t met the five year bar pay a fee when the emergency coverage is used. So this is no justification for cutting healthcare funding.
Congressional negotiations are happening right now. Anyone can make a difference just by contacting a Senator and voicing their opinion regarding the programs at risk. Reason and truth should be the primary factor for negotiations determining the funds. Maybe then, after all the chaos, the purpose of the money will go to something great that can change America.
