Relief from shutdown is only temporary

Last week marked the end of a 35-day government shutdown — the longest in history. But while many federal workers are happy to see money coming in again, the relief is temporary at best. With the looming threat of another shutdown or the declaration of a national emergency in less than three weeks’ time, it’s impossible to feel the recent shutdown suspension is any kind of victory.

According to analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, the shutdown cost the economy $11 billion. While some of these funds will be reversed as federal employees return to work, at least $3 billion in economic activity is permanently lost.

The shutdown also threw into sharp relief the precarious financial position of many American families with breadwinners employed by the government. As the shutdown dragged on, the stories flooded in of children going hungry and workers being evicted due to a few missed paychecks.

The truly painful part of the process was watching as wealthy billionaires suggested that families struggling to make ends meet take out loans to survive or try to bargain with their grocer for food — despite income being necessary to obtain a loan in nearly every part of the country. A cursory Google search on “loans for shutdown” brings up 28 million results, as people scrambled to pay their rent, put gas in their cars and keep up with student loans despite no incoming cash flow.

It couldn’t be clearer that the intention of many in power is to focus the attention and wrath of citizens in America’s low and middle-classes on each other, not on those who hold the majority of the world’s wealth in tight little fists.

According to a 2017 Oxfam International report, the top eight richest billionaires in the world own as much combined wealth as 3.6 billion people — about half of the human race. And if this shutdown has shown anything, it’s that out-of-touch leaders on all sides of the political spectrum backed by a staggeringly disproportionate concentration of wealth are putting families at risk.

Now, Americans are left holding their breath to see if their well-being will once again be used as a bargaining chip in national negotiations. And because of that, I don’t think immigration, border security or any other partisan talking point is indicative of any kind of emergency.

The division among the American people, the inability to forget petty gripes and the lack of focus on larger problems damaging families all over the country — now that’s the national emergency.

Shannen Talbot can be reached at shannen@cheneyfreepress.com.