# Trump's Shutdown **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 11, 2019, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-shutdown/827577 "2019-01-11T06:18:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 16
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2019, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-shutdown/827577/301 "2019-01-22T23:45:30Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > As I said upthread, SNAP (‘Food Stamps’) is only funded through February. I think it’s safe to say there is a fair number of Trumpniks that will go hungry. I don’t think any Trump supporters use SNAP. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2019, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-shutdown/827577/302 "2019-01-22T23:52:04Z")
Lol ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2019, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-shutdown/827577/303 "2019-01-23T00:04:21Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > I think you are underestimating Americans’ abilities to live with hardships and the GOP’s commitment to less government. > > ETA: Originally, I thought this would drag on for a month or two. Air travel and SNAP being two of the biggest, IMO, motivators for people to tell their congresspeople and the POTUS to end this madness. Now, I’m seeing people trudge along as best they can, just like they do when injured or sick. Americans without learn to limp and accept a shorter, more painful life rather than force the ones who have to give some of it up. I’m seeing the same thing with regard to government services. I’m no longer confident that this will end in 2 months, or even 6. At this point, I’m convinced that Trump et al. are betting they can hold on and make this the new normal. Sure, government contractors, air traffic controllers, and various other people are trudging along in unhappy silence. But Trumpeters are, as a baseline characteristic, loud, angry, and prone to attack. Or put another way they’re whiny little hypersensitive bastards. And the current republican administration is _utterly dependent_ upon their support. So when they personally feel the pinch, they’ll let everyone know it, and the republican congress will fold like a cheap suit. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2019, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-shutdown/827577/304 "2019-01-23T00:05:08Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > I don’t think any Trump supporters use SNAP. [Um:](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-10/trump-voters-would-be-hit-hardest-by-gop-s-food-stamp-work-rules) > [@](#): > > A Bloomberg analysis shows that 12.9 percent of residents of states that backed Trump in 2016 used food stamps in February, the most recent month for which data are available, compared with 11.4 percent in states won by Democrat Hillary Clinton. […] > > Residents of non-metropolitan counties, which gave 66 percent of their votes to Trump in 2016, are 18 percent more likely to participate in the food-stamp program than city-dwellers […] Given that some 40+ million Americans use SNAP, I think it’s pretty unlikely that there would be no Trump supporters among them. I grant you, though, that Trump-supporting SNAP users are likely to be very surprised that **their** benefits are going to run out along with those of the people they consider lazy freeloaders (i.e., SNAP users who aren’t them). Face-eating leopards abound. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2019, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-shutdown/827577/305 "2019-01-23T00:31:54Z")
“He’s not hurting the people he needs to be hurting.” ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2019, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-shutdown/827577/306 "2019-01-23T00:54:09Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > Air travel and SNAP being two of the biggest, IMO, motivators for people to tell their congresspeople and the POTUS to end this madness. If 4 hour wait times become the norm at the busiest airports, a whole lot of folks are going to be writing their congresspeople. I don’t know if it will ever come to this, but I also don’t know how long the TSA folks can continue working without a paycheck. ---
**Author:** ![Apollyon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/apollyon/32/4238_2.png) [@Apollyon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apollyon)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2019, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-shutdown/827577/307 "2019-01-23T00:56:58Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > I grant you, though, that Trump-supporting SNAP users are likely to be very surprised that **their** benefits are going to run out along with those of the people they consider lazy freeloaders… Is the immanent exhaustion of food stamps being widely publicized? Seems like having a big countdown clock “Days left: 14” could add some urgency to the views of right - thinking leopard voters. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2019, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-shutdown/827577/308 "2019-01-23T01:02:48Z")
> [@begbert2](#): > > Sure, government contractors, air traffic controllers, and various other people are trudging along in unhappy silence. > > But Trumpeters are, as a baseline characteristic, loud, angry, and prone to attack. Or put another way they’re whiny little hypersensitive bastards. And the current republican administration is _utterly dependent_ upon their support. So when they personally feel the pinch, they’ll let everyone know it, and the republican congress will fold like a cheap suit. Oh, they’ll be angry all right-- at Obama (it’s all his fault) and Hillary (except the part that’s her fault) and now Chuck and Nancy (and the rest is their fault) and everybody except Der Trumpster who lurves them and can do no wrong in their eyes. ---
**Author:** ![steronz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steronz/32/11765_2.png) [@steronz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steronz)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2019, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-shutdown/827577/309 "2019-01-23T01:02:53Z")
The deadline for Feb stamps has already passed. There is currently no plan for March stamps. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2019, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-shutdown/827577/310 "2019-01-23T01:02:57Z")
> [@begbert2](#): > > So is this shutdown ever going to directly effect Joe Q MAGA Trumpster? If so, how? Are welfare or medicare or medicaid at risk? Those things may become at risk. Certainly many Congressional Republicans would be happy to seize this opportunity to privatize them (meaning much less will be going to those who depend on them, and much more will be going into the pockets of American oligarchs). But more broadly, if Trump succeeds in plunging the US into recession, he’s really going to have trouble getting the mass of Americans to accept that ‘it’s all the Democrats’ fault.’ The GOP still holds the White House, the Senate, and the Supreme Court—and they had the House, too, for Trump’s first two years. He owns this. And his voters won’t like recession, no matter how enthusiastically they bend themselves into mental pretzels, trying to blame anyone but Trump. ---
**Author:** ![romansperson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/romansperson/32/17100_2.png) [@romansperson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/romansperson)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2019, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-shutdown/827577/311 "2019-01-23T01:04:42Z")
> [@Railer13](#): > > If 4 hour wait times become the norm at the busiest airports, a whole lot of folks are going to be writing their congresspeople. I don’t know if it will ever come to this, but I also don’t know how long the TSA folks can continue working without a paycheck. [The Transportation Security Administration is making a plea for 250 people to bolster its workforce of backup officers](https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/22/politics/tsa-shutdown-backup-email/index.html), the latest sign the agency is straining under the pressure of the shutdown, according to an internal email sent Monday morning from a TSA executive and obtained exclusively by CNN. > [@](#): > > The email is the latest example of increasing anxiety within TSA about the rising number of callouts as employees prepare to miss a second paycheck this week. Ten percent of TSA’s workforce had unexcused absences on Sunday, the agency said. > This is the second such request for more backup screeners to help fill staffing gaps, according to the email and a TSA official familiar with its contents. > > All members of the agency’s National Deployment team, a rapid response team comprised of TSA officers can be sent to airports across the country to help fill the staffing gaps, have already been dispatched, according to the email. The team has been used to patch up gaps at airports in Atlanta, New York, Chicago and elsewhere as the partial government shutdown extends into its fifth week. ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2019, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-shutdown/827577/312 "2019-01-23T01:07:14Z")
> [@Apollyon](#): > > Is the immanent exhaustion of food stamps being widely publicized? Seems like having a big countdown clock “Days left: 14” could add some urgency to the views of right - thinking leopard voters. SNAP (food stamps) benefits have already been issued through February, according to [Business Insider](https://www.businessinsider.com/government-shutdown-are-food-stamps-snap-wic-benefits-paid-2019-1). However… > [@](#): > > USDA officials could not commit to providing SNAP benefits in March and it appears unlikely that the funds will be there if the shutdown were to run that long. > > Given the fact that President Donald Trump threatened to shut the government down for “months or even years” during a meeting with congressional leaders on Friday, the uncertainty of SNAP benefits beyond February could become a problem for the millions of people who rely on the program. ---
**Author:** ![Folacin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folacin/32/3195_2.png) [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2019, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-shutdown/827577/313 "2019-01-23T01:21:25Z")
> [@JB99](#): > > Could you expand on this? My understanding is that once someone stops paying me, they are no longer my employer. And they are all free to quit and go get another job. Not that they should have to, but that is the difference between an essential employee and a slave. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2019, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-shutdown/827577/314 "2019-01-23T02:01:39Z")
> [@romansperson](#): > > [The Transportation Security Administration is making a plea for 250 people to bolster its workforce of backup officers](https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/22/politics/tsa-shutdown-backup-email/index.html), the latest sign the agency is straining under the pressure of the shutdown, according to an internal email sent Monday morning from a TSA executive and obtained exclusively by CNN. Yeah, right. And how many people are going to sign up for work that you don’t know when you’l be paid for doing? This thread is titled _Trump’s Shutdown_, but I’ve already heard real live people referring to it as the Democrats’ shutdown, and that’s the most polite term I’ve heard. Not a damn thing is going to get them to change their mind on this. You’ve heard, no doubt, the expression “There’s no fanatic like a convert”. Well, the trumpeters are all converts to Trumpism. They’re all fanatics. No matter what happens, it’ll never be Trump’s fault. It’s going to be the fault of (pick any that apply, meaning pick any that you will hear the trumpteter say is at fault): [ul][li]Obama[/li][li]Hillary[/li][li]House of Representatives[/li][li]Previous Congresses[/li][li]Democrats[/li][li]Muslims[/li][li]Socialists[/li][li]Communists[/li][li]Illegal immigrants[/li][li]Foreigners[/li][li]Special intersts (Global elite wink wink)[/ul][/li]It really does not matter how much the trumpeter suffers, he will never ever ever blame the actual cause of his problems. And that’s what the country has come to today. Thanks for voting that piece of shit in, morons. Note: that last paragraph is not directed towards **romansperson**. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2019, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-shutdown/827577/315 "2019-01-23T02:21:44Z")
> [@steronz](#): > > The deadline for Feb stamps has already passed. There is currently no plan for March stamps. NPR reports that February stamps have been issued early, while the government can still pay for them. SNAP users should be careful to not use them before the end of February. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2019, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-shutdown/827577/316 "2019-01-23T02:32:01Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > …This thread is titled _Trump’s Shutdown_, but I’ve already heard real live people referring to it as the Democrats’ shutdown, and that’s the most polite term I’ve heard. Not a damn thing is going to get them to change their mind on this. > … This. Sadly. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2019, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-shutdown/827577/317 "2019-01-23T02:55:04Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > This. Sadly. Perhaps the clip of his saying he will own the shutdown should be played on TV. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2019, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-shutdown/827577/318 "2019-01-23T03:08:47Z")
Trump’s “deal” undoubtedly has Stephen Miller’s fingerprints all over it, and we’re now beginning to see what the shutdown is about. Donald Trump, and to a great extent the Republican party, is essentially holding the federal bureaucracy hostage. First it was the wall, but since the Democrats haven’t caved in, rather than come to the negotiating table, Trump is doing what he always does: counter-punching, doubling down. Give him a wall, and oh by the way, now he wants to restrict legal asylum seeking. > **[The Border Wall Isn't The Only Reason Democrats Oppose Plan To End The Shutdown](https://www.npr.org/2019/01/22/687516967/the-border-wall-isnt-the-only-reason-democrats-oppose-plan-to-end-the-shutdown)** > > Democrats and immigrant rights advocates say the president's proposal to end the shutdown contains big changes to asylum law that they're calling a "poison pill." > [@](#): > > “This historic change in asylum law would categorically block tens of thousands of children from ever applying for asylum,” said Greg Chen, government relations director at the American Immigration Lawyers Association. > [@](#): > > The administration’s proposal would tighten DACA requirements in a number of ways, and raise fees for the program. The proposal “does not extend DACA,” wrote David Bier, an immigration analyst at the Cato Institute, so much as replace it with “a totally different program that will exclude untold thousands of Dreamers who would have been eligible under DACA.” In other words, Donald Trump is trying to scam Democrats into signing a fake compromise. Wow, couldn’t have seen that one coming. And if the Democrats don’t give in? Well he doesn’t care how long the shutdown lasts because it’s absolutely in his best legal and political interests to sow more chaos. He’s willing to hijack the entire federal workforce and crash it into the side of a mountain, as far as he’s concerned, especially if he believes it can grind the procedural work at the DoJ and other institutions we take for granted. Trump is a lawless businessman, who is backed by lawless international oligarchs, who in turn are backed by lawless international thug in Vladimir Putin. And together they have a vested interest in making American politics into more of a political frontier. And besides, it’s been a talking point of theirs for years: making the federal government smaller, and if they can’t do through the elections process, then they’ll just destroy the whole damn thing altogether until there’s a reason not to (like a massive recession that might cost them the election). As I’ve said numerous times, this is going to get worse - much worse - before it gets better. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2019, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-shutdown/827577/319 "2019-01-23T03:20:42Z")
> [@Railer13](#): > > If 4 hour wait times become the norm at the busiest airports, a whole lot of folks are going to be writing their congresspeople. I don’t know if it will ever come to this, but I also don’t know how long the TSA folks can continue working without a paycheck. It won’t happen. They’ll just start sending people thru without proper screening. I mean, you’d go ahead thru if they just told you “yeah, you look okay”, right? Do you think the other 12,000,000 (estimate; citation needed) flying every day are any different than you? EVERYONE will go try and get not heir plane and be fine… until something isn’t fine and then everyone will want everyone else’s heads. ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2019, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-shutdown/827577/320 "2019-01-23T03:42:30Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > It won’t happen. They’ll just start sending people thru without proper screening. I mean, you’d go ahead thru if they just told you “yeah, you look okay”, right? Do you think the other 12,000,000 (estimate; citation needed) flying every day are any different than you? EVERYONE will go try and get not heir plane and be fine… until something isn’t fine and then everyone will want everyone else’s heads. About [2.6 million](https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/by_the_numbers/), but I see your point. They could just stop screening passengers and quit checking luggage, and just wave everybody through. But you know, if it comes to this, and there are no incidents, maybe it would prove that we could get by with less airport security? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-shutdown/827577.md?page=15) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-shutdown/827577.md?page=17)