The Friday Files: Shutdown Follies

So the longest government shutdown in United States history came to an end this afternoon, when the pressure on air traffic controllers working without pay started to cause delays up and down the eastern seaboard. And that was only the most acute of the symptoms the government shutdown has inflicted on the nation. Federal employees just faced their second missed paycheck, important government institutions have been stretched to the breaking point, just as an economy already fragile from months of uncertainty faced the prospect of a whole mess of folks not having tax returns to spend.

The result is certainly the most telling defeat of the Trump presidency, The Cheeto Tinted Tyrant wanted funding for his Great Wall of Trump on the US/Mexico border and he got nada. The government will reopen for three weeks, allowing furloughed federal workers to receive their back pay and get back to the under-appreciated job of keeping the country running for three weeks at least.

We may be doing all this again next month, so my enthusiasm is muted. But we’ll see… we’ll see.

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