Seva Hester, Sally Abdul Khalek, and Sytha Beth Ortiz
President Donald Trump shut down the government on December 22, 2018, in an attempt to push for funding for the border wall between the United States and Mexico.The government temporarily reopened on January 25, 2019, for three weeks.The shutdown lasted 35 days making it the longest lasting government shutdown in United States history. During the shutdown, 800 thousand federal workers did not receive a paycheck and many were placed under financial stress as they were unable to make necessary payments.
“The economy was affected negatively by the government shutdown,” Government and Economics teacher Daniel Harmon said. “With those 800 thousand government workers out of a job, they weren’t spending and the private contractors the same thing. It adversely affected the economy.”
Senior Lyllian Garcia’s mom is one of those federal workers who was affected by the shutdown.
“My mom works for the IRS so she hadn’t been getting paid and we had to limit ourselves on going out to eat or spending on things we wanted, or couldn’t do some things we wanted to do,” Garcia said.
Since no one knew how long the shutdown would last, there was a feeling of nervousness in their family.
“Usually both of my parents work so it made me kind of nervous. I wasn’t sure how long it was going to last and was worried for how long my dad would have to provide by himself,” Garcia said.
Similarly, junior Lindsey Ault’s family was also affected by the shutdown. Ault shared that her dad works for the Department of Homeland Security.
“The shutdown, like other families, meant that we were living without a paycheck,” Ault said. “Luckily my family is smart and has a separate savings account so we were able to take from that to pay off our monthly bills like electrical and house payments. The shutdown occurred… around the holidays and we didn’t have as big of a Christmas due to it, …but we were fortunate enough to cover the expenses we had. I know other families that struggled to recover from it as easily due to the holidays.”
In Trump’s speech, the reason why he reopened the government was because of the TSA and air traffic controllers, who were calling in sick and causing the airports to become backlogged with people and delayed or canceled flights.
“They [TSA and air traffic controllers] have a very sensitive job, they have to make sure the flights don’t crash into each other in the air. And they weren’t getting paid. It was very stressful for them. Same thing for the TSA, the people who protect us at the airport.They’re both very stressful jobs not to get paid for,” Harmon said.
Trump said that after the three weeks is over, he would shut down the government again or call for a National emergency in order to push more for a wall.
“I feel frustrated that the government can’t come to an agreement when both sides have offered a compromise but neither of their compromises are good for the other side. The President has offered suggestions and Congress has as well but neither will agree to the others,” Ault said.
Harmon shared that he hopes the two sides can reach an agreement.
“I think there should be a way they can negotiate without shutting down the government.There has to be a way for it not to shut down at these times when they’re trying to come to terms with a negotiation,” Harmon said.