General Discussion
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Jake Stewart said:
"Alright, let's clear some things up about this shutdown. My job literally requires me to monitor the government funding process, so let me explain what's happening here.
There are 12 spending bills that make up federal government funding. Five of the 12 were passed by the House and Senate last fall, but seven of the 12 were still pending (hence a partial shutdown).
Between October and December, key House and Senate offices met and negotiated details of the remaining 7 spending bills. When those details were worked out, they were ready to go. A two-week extension was agreed to (by both chambers) in early December to work out the final details.
In mid-December, the Senate took the first step and passed all 7 spending bills in a UNANIMOUS decision. That's right, unanimous. 100 - 0. All Republicans and Democrats voted in favor. The package gets sent to the House.
The government could have been funded here, at this very moment, had the House just passed the Senate's unanimously agreed-upon spending package. Shutdown completely avoided. But House Republicans chose not to do that.
Instead, right before the holiday break, the House decided to change the agreement (and add funding for the wall).
They passed an alternative spending package in a highly partisan vote, one that contained funding for the border wall.
So now the Senate and House have two different spending bills (that's not allowed, obviously). Government shuts down. The holiday break happens. January 3rd comes. And then we have a new session. Legislation resets.
Now read carefully because this point is very, very crucial.
Speaker Pelosi could have promoted a "liberal agenda" and advocated for a new spending package that completely gave Democrats everything they wanted. However, she chose to respect the Republican-led Senate's spending package from December. So she left 6 of the 7 spending bills the exact same, word-for-word, as they were in the Senate. Again, the Senate had unanimously voted in favor of these bills just a few weeks prior.
The sole remaining spending bill was the one with the border wall funding. Speaker Pelosi simply issued a temporary extension on this bill so that the border wall funding could be debated without the government shutting down. Again, she didn't pass a spending bill that said "no funding for the wall". It was a temporary extension to work out the details and ensure negotiations didn't harm workers.
This solution would have, at the very least, kept most of the federal departments unrelated to the border wall open. It would also have kept DHS, TSA, etc., open throughout negotiations, at least until the extension deadline approached.
But Trump and Mitch McConnell are not letting this happen. They are advocating for all of these departments to remain shutdown (even departments that have NOTHING to do with the border).
Since then, Democrats in the House keep passing bill after bill to reopen the government, pay workers while the government is closed, etc. Mitch McConnell is not allowing any of these bills to come to the Senate. All because Trump told him to do that.
These men are monsters. And, by extension, if you support this, you are a monster. These families have become Trump's pawns. And they are suffering because of it."
volstork
(5,394 posts)won't report this. The blame needs to be laid on trump and turtle all day, every day. There is NO "both sides are to blame" here. We need to reclaim the narrative.
JudyM
(29,122 posts)Roland99
(53,342 posts)silverweb
(16,402 posts)I'd like to share this from the original FB post, but there are a lot of Jake Stewarts.
TexasBushwhacker
(20,044 posts)silverweb
(16,402 posts)Roland99
(53,342 posts)silverweb
(16,402 posts)Hermit-The-Prog
(33,041 posts)Based on broadcast news reporting, they do not seem to be aware of the history of this trumpshutdown.