The currently unfolding longest government shutdown in American history is quickly approaching a full four weeks in length. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is fed up with President Donald Trump’s behavior sparking the stalemate, and she outlined her stance at her weekly press conference this Thursday.
As she put it:
‘Once again we call upon the president to reopen government… this is directly related to our security. The Trump shutdown is undermining that. We’re not paying people who keep us safe… This senseless shutdown is inflicting great pain in every part of our country. Every day, the impacts spread… I don’t understand why the reality of this in people’s lives is not cared about by the administration… We should respect what they do for our country.’
Watch below.
Reimbursements for health care providers caring for mine workers are not being processed, she said she’s heard from affected individuals themselves as just one example of the shutdown’s impacts. As she explained on top of those who use government services that aren’t being provided, government workers currently going without pay are spread across the entire United States, as is their hardship leaving them unable to cover basic expenses like rent and mortgage payments.
She insisted:
‘There is no reason for this to happen.’
Trump has claimed that he “can relate” to the affected workers, but he’s also claimed without apparent evidence that they support his shutdown-inducing push for a wall, which he’s willing to drag on for months or even years. The House under Pelosi’s leadership has already taken up eight spending packages and counting, and yet Trump still has the gall to claim that the full responsibility for the shutdown rests on Democrats’ shoulders. He’s the one refusing to sign any spending legislation unless he gets what he wants — not Nancy Pelosi.
That’s hardly an irrelevant point, since the shutdown has grown to such a magnitude that besides the some 800,000 government workers indefinitely out of the job, some fear a recession is imminent.
Trump has sought over $5 billion for a border wall blocking off Mexico, despite the fact that overall, undocumented border crossings are at a more than forty year low. There’s no credible evidence to support charges of terrorism in the ranks of those who do continue to make it over the southern border, and although some undocumented immigrants have committed heinous crimes — so have endless throngs of native born, white Americans. Yet, the Trump administration doesn’t seem particularly concerned by actual crime as much as they’re intent on singling out immigrants.
As Pelosi put it in her televised response to Trump’s recent Oval Office address stumping for the wall and shutdown, the women and children fleeing violence and seeking asylum at the southern border are not a threat.
Covering actual threats, Pelosi again made it clear this week that it’s flatly false to suggest Democrats support “open borders” and no border security. In reality, Democrats are happy to support border security improvements to address real problems like the majority of illegal drugs that come smuggled through ports of entry, not in bags sneaked through the bushes on the border as Trump would suggest.
Featured Image via Screenshot
