Mark Trahant
Special to ICT
Elon Musk has a notion that a government shutdown is a good thing. He called on the House this week to reject any spending bill (actually any bill).
″‘Shutting down’ the government (which doesn’t actually shut down critical functions btw) is infinitely better than passing a horrible bill,” Musk wrote in one of dozens of X posts opposing a temporary spending bill. He also said “no bills” should be passed until after Jan. 20 when Donald J. Trump takes office.
But on Friday afternoon, Congress approved legislation to avert a shutdown just hours before the deadline to do so. As a result, federal funding will continue to flow into mid-March.
Had the measure failed, a shutdown would have hit people hard (including those who voted for the Trump ticket) and the economy. Then there is the politics. The Republican majority is thin in this House – and its majority is even smaller in the next Congress. That means the conference will have to be unified or Democratic votes will be needed to enact a budget, even a temporary one.
My way or the highway won’t work. This notion was made clear by the House rejecting a Trump-Musk-approved “slim” version of a temporary bill by the House of Representatives. That measure failed by a wide margin, rejected even by more Republicans than Democrats.
Here are the facts from a Trump-inspired government Christmas shutdown in 2018. (One of four in the past decade.)
One study found that some 380,000 workers went on furlough. Another 420,000 worked but did not get paid until the shutdown ended.
The Congressional Budget Office said the economy dropped by slightly more than one-tenth of one percent but much more significant were its effects on individual businesses and workers. “Among those who experienced the largest and most direct negative effects are federal workers who faced delayed compensation and private-sector entities that lost business. Some of those private-sector entities will never recoup that lost income.”
The impact on Indigenous people and governments was also critical. A congressional hearing that examined that government shutdown reported shortages in food delivery programs. Mary Trottier spoke for the Spirit Lake Food Distribution Program in North Dakota and said federal food programs serve more than 100,000 people in 276 Native communities “with little or no access to grocery stores or transportation to the stores to redeem SNAP (food stamp) benefits.” She told the committee a significant number of elders relied on that food distribution. “Nearly half of our participants are over the age of 60, and the average age of our participants is 54,” she said. “Over half are currently employed but need the help our program offers to make ends meet each month.”
On top of that, in that shutdown the demand for food increased because so many federal workers were furloughed or worked without a paycheck.
“So our tribal governments have to choose between providing food or medicine for our most vulnerable people. During this shutdown, we’re told to make do with what little we have in Indian Country,” she told Congress. “We have already been making do with very little for a long time. If the shutdown continues, we may be forced to make do with nothing. “
But that’s a good thing, according to Musk’s tweet frenzy. Only that’s not new either. One of then President Trump’s advisors said at the time: “Workers are furloughed, and right now, it’s about 25 percent of government workers are furloughed, which means they are not allowed to go to work,” Kevin Hassett, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers said on PBS. “But then, when the shutdown ends, they go back to work and they get their back pay.”
But for those operating on a paycheck-to-paycheck economy, it’s a different story. And if this goes into January, as Musk would like, it won’t just be federal employees, but hundreds of thousands of contractors, including tribal employees.
For example, in 2018-2019 the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes instituted a reduced work schedule for tribal employees to preserve tribal funds. The Navajo Nation delayed scholarships for students at universities. And the Pawnee Nation established a “go fund me” page to help families through the standoff.
The politics of all this is complicated and messy. The congressional appropriations process has been broken for a long time. Congress hasn’t been able to do its job. Instead of passing appropriations bills, Congress more often uses an “omnibus” bill that throws all the budget lines into one bundle. That really ticks off conservatives who want to cut the budget – and some vote no against any temporary spending bill.
But it’s hard to get the votes in either House without making deals. And Democratic votes will be needed in order to get a spending bill across the finish line. (On top of that, the current plan of House Speaker Mike Johnson requires support from two-thirds of the House. So a lot of Democratic votes will be needed.)
The bigger question in all of this goes to a core value of what was once the Tea Party and now MAGA and that’s the idea that running a government can be a simple operation, an either-or choice. Musk said it well when he X’d (is that the right verb?): “Your elected representatives have heard you and now the terrible bill is dead. The voice of the people has triumphed.”
That may work to kill a spending bill. Passing one – flaws and all – is a much more difficult task. Yet it’s essential governing.
