# Please Explain Trump's Latest Shutdown Threat **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [December 12, 2018, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-trumps-latest-shutdown-threat/825977 "2018-12-12T04:02:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2018, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-trumps-latest-shutdown-threat/825977/61 "2018-12-16T22:47:06Z")
> [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](#): > > . . . He looked like he was going to choke to death and repeated it back at her looking incredulous . . . Was it just me, or did he seem to take a bit too long to catch on? ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2018, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-trumps-latest-shutdown-threat/825977/62 "2018-12-19T05:05:45Z")
I admit some aspects of this baffle me. Threatening to shoot yourself in the foot if you don’t get your wall funded seems to me to be a dubious negotiating strategy. Trump turned down wall funding for DACA earlier this year, even though almost 75% of Republicans support DACA. [Cite](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2018/01/20/schumer-offered-trump-something-democrats-hate-to-get-something-republicans-broadly-like/?utm_term=.5c5f38ea7b64). Slate said, [Trump should have taken Schumer’s early 2018 offer](https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/03/trump-should-have-accepted-democrats-border-wall-offer.html). Perry Bacon at 538 [disagreed](https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/why-trump-isnt-taking-democrats-offer-for-a-wall/). I’m wondering why Trump couldn’t have offered a package of things conservative Democratic Senators like in exchange for $2-5 billion of wall. The wall is an impotent waste of money, but this white elephant does little direct harm to anyone. Aside from being a racially motivated talking point and a minor taxpayer burden that is. Well, at least we appear to have avoided a Trump shutdown. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2018, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-trumps-latest-shutdown-threat/825977/63 "2018-12-21T02:46:24Z")
> [@tripthicket](#): > > I’m assuming that the funding for the leopards that eat people’s faces has already been secured. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2018, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-trumps-latest-shutdown-threat/825977/64 "2018-12-21T02:56:34Z")
> [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#): > > The wall is an impotent waste of money, but this white elephant does little direct harm to anyone. Aside from being a racially motivated talking point and a minor taxpayer burden that is. > > Well, at least we appear to have avoided a Trump shutdown. Actually, a lot of property owners could be [screwed mightily by eminent domain takings](https://reason.com/volokh/2017/12/14/how-using-eminent-domain-to-seize-land-f), not to mention [potentially catastrophic environmental damage](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/trumps-wall-could-cause-serious-environmental-damage/). And last time I checked, our God-Emperor is now saying he won’t sign the CR without wall funding. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2018, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-trumps-latest-shutdown-threat/825977/65 "2018-12-21T13:17:08Z")
So they’re saying that this likely won’t pass the Senate because it needs 60 votes. Is that because of the cloture rule? ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2018, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-trumps-latest-shutdown-threat/825977/66 "2018-12-21T13:47:49Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > So they’re saying that this likely won’t pass the Senate because it needs 60 votes. Is that because of the cloture rule? Pretty much, yes. ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2018, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-trumps-latest-shutdown-threat/825977/67 "2018-12-21T14:10:18Z")
Has there even been two high-profile shutdowns in a year before? Remember, we pretty much started this year with this bullshit too exactly 11 months ago. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2018, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-trumps-latest-shutdown-threat/825977/68 "2018-12-21T15:26:22Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > So they’re saying that this likely won’t pass the Senate because it needs 60 votes. Is that because of the cloture rule? And you can bet that McConnell will be asked to destroy the filibuster in order to ram this through. I’m not betting against it after that tactic was used to appoint the Supreme Court justice stolen from Obama. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2018, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-trumps-latest-shutdown-threat/825977/69 "2018-12-21T15:45:38Z")
> [@EddyTeddyFreddy](#): > > And last time I checked, our God-Emperor is now saying he won’t sign the CR without wall funding. He was tweet-bragging about how gracious he was to keep the government open … until his FoxNews overlords told him not to be such a pansy. So, after Congress had gone to some effort to pass a bipartisan and then taken taxis to the airport for Christmas, he tweeted his change-of-mind. (One GOP Senator is quoted with “You couldn’t make this shit up” or some such.) And he seems very proud that this shutdown may last “a very long time.” It will be the biggest, longest shutdown ever — everybody’s saying so. MAGA. _Government by tweet._ The top military and foreign policy advisers all learned of his Syria pull-out from the tweet-box. (I guess if they want advance knowledge of Trump’s foreign policy jerkings they should ask the Kremlin.) > [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > So they’re saying that this likely won’t pass the Senate because it needs 60 votes. Is that because of the cloture rule? Trump has called for the thermonuclear option — McConnell and Pence just unilaterally decree that cloture requires simple majority. But aren’t Senators already boarding airplanes? Do they have monitors at the airports making sure a GOP Senator can’t board unless a Demo boards first? ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2018, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-trumps-latest-shutdown-threat/825977/70 "2018-12-21T15:54:12Z")
Unless I’m misunderstanding the rules (that 50+1 votes needed to eliminate the filibuster), there’s no chance of this occurring. Even on the off chance that McConnell has 51 votes for Trump’s border wall (which seems highly unlikely), he doesn’t have anywhere close to 51 votes to eliminate the filibuster. He might not even have 10 or 20 votes for that. ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2018, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-trumps-latest-shutdown-threat/825977/71 "2018-12-21T16:22:39Z")
I believe that both Orrin Hatch and Jeff Flake have said they would vote against removing the 60 senator cloture rule. I’m pretty certain that there are other Republican senators who would feel the same way, and will be in the Senate with the new Congress. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2018, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-trumps-latest-shutdown-threat/825977/72 "2018-12-21T19:40:46Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > Tell me again why Nancy Pelosi is too old and past her prime to be Speaker and leader of the Opposition to Trump? Yeah, the GOP and Trump are scared shitless of her. I dont like all of her politics, but no doubt, she is really effective. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2018, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-trumps-latest-shutdown-threat/825977/73 "2018-12-21T19:50:04Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > As I recall, past shutdowns involved announcements that nonessential government employees don’t need to show up for work — which sounds (a) less like a big deal, and more (b) like a tautology; and which sparks inevitable wisecracks, especially from folks for whom ‘during the shutdown’ and ‘after the shutdown’ seem at first glance to be pretty much unchanged from ‘before the shutdown’: people who only know there’s a shutdown because they hear that there’s one, and who only know it’s over when they hear _that,_ and who otherwise see no difference. > > To coin a phrase, “business goes on”. Not quite. Good and fun things like Federal parks and monuments get closed. So yeah, the Army gets paid, the FBI, etc. But we, as taxpayers, are affected. And it doesnt save money, either, as all those govt workers have to be paid afterwards. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2018, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-trumps-latest-shutdown-threat/825977/74 "2018-12-21T19:51:19Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Heck, if there’s a shutdown in February/March/April (and were I an American), I know I’d be annoyed since I like to file my taxes as early as possible. IRS keeps chugging, but no more tax audits, oddly. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-trumps-latest-shutdown-threat/825977.md?page=3)