One of the big fears the left has regarding government shutdowns is what happens if the public doesn’t notice any difference in their lives?
What if the only people affected by the federal shutdown are government union workers, left-wing spongers, and tourists?
The lack of an effect could really strike a blow for smaller government.
That’s why coverage of shutdowns changed radically.
Over the years there have been a number of shutdowns and the republic was none the worse for wear. Normal people went about their normal business, while the political class had a nervous breakdown.
Government shutdowns were non-events until the regime media learned the interruption in the waste of tax dollars could be used to generate hysterical shutdown news coverage and mobilize the dependent class to call slinky-spined Republicans.
We are currently watching a repeat, only this time it’s with sombreros.
Trump has a strong position in the public relations battle, but he could make it even stronger if he followed the advice of columnist Derek Hunter.
One of the few salient arguments the left-wing has is “essential government employees” like ICE agents and the military are working without paychecks during the shutdown even though they are performing crucial tasks.
It’s a salient point with us, too.
The important point to remember is during a shutdown the outflow stops, but the inflow “keeps on keepin’ on.”
The feds are collecting tax money every day.
Way back in 2018 The Washington Post published an interactive page with which readers could take the $172.4 billion available even after the shutdown and decide who gets paid and who doesn’t.
One of your trusty columnists took the money and paid all the essentials: Social Security; T-bill debt service; Medicare; Medicaid; federal salaries and benefits; unemployment insurance; food stamps and TANF; military pay; Veteran’s Affairs and even that (at the time) seat of deep state resistance — the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).
There was even $700 million left over for the odd strike on Venezuelan “fishermen” or a “Maryland Man” flight to Uganda.
That’s why The Washington Post didn’t make that mistake again.
The facts undercut all the shutdown predictions of doom.
Trump can keep the lights turned on and end the sob stories about missing paychecks by simply cutting the checks, as Hunter suggests.
He did the research and discovered the reason the feds don’t continue to pay the bills for expenses already incurred dates back to the wretched Carter administration.
“The concept of a ‘government shutdown’ didn’t come about until 1980, when Jimmy Carter’s Attorney General [Benjamin Civiletti] decided that spending any money deemed non-essential without a current authorization should not be done.
“Before then, the government simply paid the bills as they always did — the spending had been authorized, the work had been done, and the money was there. The government didn’t close.”
In keeping with the arrogance and incompetence of the Carter administration, Civiletti then decreed, “he intended to back up his interpretation to the fullest: the law provides criminal penalties of $5,000 in fines and two years in jail for agency heads convicted of violations; the Justice Department, Civiletti said, would prosecute violators.”
That is the interpretation of Carter’s long gone attorney general.
It just so happens President Trump has his own attorney general and AG Bondi is perfectly capable of issuing her own interpretation that nullifies Civiletti’s.
Hunter explains, “The only reason the government shuts down is because the second worst President in history’s Attorney General said it had to, and everyone else after pretty much obeyed. If anyone disobeyed, they faced punishment simply made up by him.”
Time for Trump to order a new interpretation and start paying essential employees again and force the leftists to fall back on the real reason for the shutdown: they are demanding free healthcare for illegal aliens.
Michael Reagan, the eldest son of President Ronald Reagan, is a Newsmax TV analyst. A syndicated columnist and author, he chairs The Reagan Legacy Foundation. Mr. Reagan is an in-demand speaker with Premiere Speaker’s Bureau. Read Michael Reagan’s Reports — More Here.
Michael R. Shannon is a commentator, researcher for the League of American Voters, and an award-winning political and advertising consultant with nationwide and international experience. He is author of “Conservative Christian’s Guidebook for Living in Secular Times (Now with Added Humor!)” Read Michael Shannon’s Reports — More Here.
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