To understand the government shutdown that just ended, we have to first understand how we entered the shutdown. According to CNN, on Dec. 11, 2018, Democrats in Congress disagreed with President Trump on spending roughly $5 billion on a Southern border wall.
After the disagreement, Senate leaders worked hard to renegotiate maintaining the existing barriers, but they didn’t reach an agreement. Since they were unable to compromise, the government shut down.
On Jan. 12, the government shutdown became the longest in United States history, lasting a total of 34 days, according to CNN. The previous longest shutdown lasted for 21 days from Dec. 16, 1995 to Jan. 5, 1996 under the leadership of President Bill Clinton.
Due to the shutdown, many different government offices were unable to pay their workers, which affects the whole country. On Jan. 15, the Trump administration called roughly 50,000 government workers back to work without pay, according to thebalance.com.
These workers are promised a reimbursement of their wages by Congress after the shutdown ends, but workers are currently not receiving any wages for their work, according to thebalance.com. Though it is unclear what effect garnished wages have on the workers, it can be assumed that the workers may be taking less pride in doing their jobs.
For instance, I recently went through Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, and it only took me 20 minutes to get through airport security. This is interesting because previously I had to make sure I was there three hours before my flight to get through security.
This shows that the Transportation Security Administration workers have changed their work ethic by not spending as much time as they should looking to see if people are bringing in contraband or other potentially harmful items through security. Even though they are still doing their jobs, the TSA agents are no longer spending the time and care they should to ensure the safety for all in the airport, which may have a dangerous effect on travelers.
When workers are not paid what they deserve to do their jobs, we all suffer. If they are not getting what they need or what they think they deserve, they don’t put as much effort into their jobs.
Affected workers are employees of service jobs including the Internal Revenue Service, the Department of Labor and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Other affected workers are employees for government agencies such as the Department of Commerce, the Department of Energy and the Food and Drug Administration.
It is clear that Trump believes that a $5.7 billion wall is the only way to deal with the problem at the border, but he also believes that the government shutdown should end. Many oppose his opinion, including Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House, who disagrees with Trump’s proposal to end the government shutdown without compromise.
According to CNBC, now that the government is open, Trump says that he will accept no less than $5.7 billion for building the wall. This means that another government shutdown may be imminent, because Trump believes that there is less than a 50 percent chance that a compromise can be reached before the next government funding lapse on Feb. 15.
Opinion: The government shutdown is over, but may start back
