As I write this, the partial government shutdown has been going on for 33 days. It is a lot longer than most anyone expected, and it still isn’t clear when it will end.
Donald Trump took up this fight in his request for $5.7 billion to start building a wall on the Mexican border. In the grand scheme of a $4.4 trillion annual budget, it is truly a drop in the bucket. But it has become quite symbolic.
I believe it was because of Ann Coulter and her tweets that Trump decided to stand his ground (for now). He probably realized that it was one of his major campaign themes. When there are chants at rallies of “build that wall”, it would be hard to explain after 4 years why there is no wall, let alone why Mexico did not pay for it.
I can’t be certain, but I don’t think Trump is going to win this fight. Pelosi and Schumer, as obnoxious as they are, understand the politics here. They refuse to give any money to Trump to build a wall. Some House Democrats are now saying that they are willing to give up to the $5.7 billion originally requested, but only for border security. This would not include a wall.
Most of Trump’s supporters are behind him with this issue, perhaps with the exception of some government employees who are missing paychecks. The problem for Trump is that most everyone else is blaming him for the government shutdown.
The left will hate Trump no matter what he does, but there are libertarians and middle-of-the-road people who have mixed opinions about Trump. The middle-of-the-road people blame Trump for the government shutdown. Some of them rightly see that he could have taken up this fight when the Republicans controlled Congress.
Maybe Trump just didn’t want more opposition coming from his own party. But if he had taken up this fight with Paul Ryan when he was Speaker of the House, then I think Trump would have won that battle. The Republican base would have been calling for Republican heads in Congress who refused to support funding the wall.
I don’t think Trump will be able to last forever on this. Government employees are on the verge of missing their second paycheck. Even though the total number is about 800,000 people who are missing their paydays, that may be enough to stop the shutdown once they get angry enough. Sure, there are about 325 million people living in the United States, but we know that an irate minority can change things politically.
That’s the politics of the situation. Now what about the actual shutdown and the potential lessons in the case for liberty?
Not Much of a Shutdown, But There Are Lessons
There are shills out there like Paul Krugman who claim that libertarians are finally getting their utopian experiment. But even as Krugman admits in his column, it’s not like the marketplace can just jump in there in a matter of days and take over what were previously government-provided functions. The government still won’t allow it in many cases anyway.
Of course, the main point in all of this is that it isn’t truly a government shutdown. The military is still occupying many countries overseas and continuing to fight wars. The troops aren’t coming home because of the shutdown.
Domestically, the Social Security checks are still going out. The payments on the debt are still being made. The hospitals are still accepting Medicare and Medicaid. If Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid had all stopped, then there really would have been a revolt by now.
If the government shutdown has shown us anything, it is that government is way too involved in every aspect of our lives. If you haven’t felt a thing from the partial government shutdown, then you should be thinking that maybe we shouldn’t have all of these employees doing non-essential things, and we could save the taxpayers a lot of money.
If, on the other hand, you do feel a significant impact from the government shutdown, then you should be thinking that maybe the government shouldn’t be running these services. Unfortunately, most people do not take away that lesson.
If the government weren’t operating security (if that’s what you want to call it) at the airports, then a government shutdown wouldn’t matter. If the federal government didn’t own so much land and so many parks, then it wouldn’t matter if the government shuts down. The parks would still be taken care of by the owners.
Whether it is the FDA or air traffic controllers or museums, these things simply shouldn’t be funded or operated by the government. Some things, such as farm subsidies, shouldn’t exist at all, unless private charities want to fund them.
The problem is obvious. People and various industries are far too dependent on the government for their existence. Maybe some will see this lesson. But unfortunately, many people will just scream louder for more government.
The good news for libertarians is that most of the IRS is shut down. It means they will get backlogged. It means they won’t be able to do as much.
Feeling the Pain
A few libertarians will basically laugh in the faces of all of the government employees missing a paycheck. I am a little more empathetic. There really are some government employees who are just working to get paid. They didn’t necessarily seek out power or try to land an easy job with great benefits. They just took the job that was available at the time. It doesn’t mean they should be allowed to suck off of everyone else forever, but we can still have some sympathy for regular people who are just trying to pay the bills and have no connection to the deep state.
If I could push a button and eliminate all of these jobs right away, I would do it. These employees are having a tough few weeks without getting paid. But what about the millions of taxpayers who work hard and are struggling to pay their rent and health insurance premiums? They are forced to pay for a $4.4 trillion government, and it is seemingly endless. There is no back pay for the average taxpayer.
We get to hear the heart-wrenching stories about government employees who are not able to pay their rent or their utilities. But somehow, most people are surviving, whether it is through savings, or credit cards, or help from family, or short-term loans.
We don’t get to hear the heart-wrenching stories about middle class America on a daily basis. We don’t get to hear about the struggles to pay $500 per month in health insurance premiums for junk plans that barely cover anything. We don’t hear about how expensive things have become in our lives. We certainly don’t hear about how government at all levels is spending about $60,000 per family in the United States.
The political lesson in all of this is that we need a lot less government.
There are personal lessons too. The people not receiving paychecks are about to miss the second paycheck. Yet, we hear these horror stories. The lesson here is that you should have a rainy day fund.
It is extremely difficult these days for some of the reasons mentioned above. Life is expensive because of the government. But if you don’t have a month’s worth of expenses saved up in the bank, then you should make that a priority. It doesn’t matter whether you are a government employee or not. You should be able to access a month’s worth of expenses if you need it.
The government has made life really expensive. The government has made many millions of people dependent on it, whether it is for a paycheck or for welfare benefits. The government has made many people virtually helpless. And then when the benefits or paychecks dry up for even a brief period of time, it means disaster for millions of people.
You should never be dependent on the government if you can help it. With the massive debt and unfunded liabilities, there are going to be defaults in the future. Welfare benefits will be cut greatly at some point. Consider this shutdown as a preview of bigger things to come in the future.