From USA Today:
"Government shutdown enters third week and is poised become second-longest on record"
The partial federal government shutdown stretched into its third week on Saturday as President Donald Trump warned again that the standoff could last for a long time. Trump told Democrats during a contentious budget meeting on Friday that he is prepared to allow parts of the government to remain shuttered for months or even years if that’s what it takes to get the funding he wants for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Later, Trump stressed during a Rose Garden news conference that he doesn’t believe a shutdown would drag on that long. “But I am prepared,” he said. "I will do whatever I have to do," he said. Trump also floated the possibility of declaring a national emergency to secure the border wall funding “for the security of our country.” “I can do it if I want,” he said. Saturday marks the 15th day of the shutdown, which will extend at least into early next week and is poised to become one of the longest in history. The House and the Senate both adjourned on Friday and aren’t scheduled to return to Washington until Tuesday afternoon, meaning that the earliest shuttered departments and agencies could reopen would be Wednesday. If the shutdown is still in effect on Wednesday, that will mark its 19th day, making it the second-longest on record. Meanwhile, Trump insisted that Friday’s budget meeting with Democrats had been “very, very productive” and said that negotiators from the White House and Congress will meet over the weekend to discuss a deal to re-open the government. But it was unclear who would attend the meeting and what they would discuss. Democratic leaders struck a more pessimistic note about Friday’s meeting, saying Trump threatened to prolong the shutdown while refusing to consider a plan to re-open the government now while negotiations continue. New House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Democrats "are committed to keeping our border safe," and "we can do that best when government is open." The shutdown began on Dec. 22, when nine federal departments and several smaller agencies – representing a quarter of the federal government – ran out of money and had to close their doors because of a budget dispute between the White House and Congress. Some 800,000 federal employees have been forced to go on unpaid leave or work without pay. The sticking point has been Trump’s insistence on $5 billion in funding for a border wall. Democrats are refusing to give him the money, arguing that a wall would be expensive, wasteful and ineffective. Late Thursday, on their first day back in the majority, Pelosi and House Democrats pushed through a package of spending bills to reopen the government. But in the GOP-led Senate, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., dismissed the legislation as “political theater, not productive lawmaking” and said he would not put the package to a vote because Trump would not sign it. The longest government shutdown on record lasted 21 days and lasted from Dec. 5, 1995 to Jan. 6, 1996. The battle involved a dispute between President Bill Clinton and Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich over spending cuts. That shutdown ended when the two sides agreed to a seven-year budget plan with some spending cuts and tax increases.
^ While I do not believe the Federal Government should ever be able to shutdown (partially or fully) I think Trump has the upper-hand in this current Shutdown. The Republicans own the Senate and so can simply over-ride whatever the Democrat-run House tries to do. The Democrats are trying to show that they have changed and have power to get things done and so they have decided to make the Border Wall their sticking-point (even while they have to teach the correct protocol and way to behave to some of their newer members.) Trump realizes that if he gives in again without getting money for the Wall then he will be seen as a push-over and so he has to stand-firm. That leaves the country and every American as the victims of both the Democrats and the Republicans in this Shutdown. ^
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