Shutdown Madness

I try to remain apolitical on this blog.  There are plenty of outlets for political discourse, so I try to stay out of it.  There are times where the politics gets crazy and I just want to rant out about it.   And this is one of those times.

 At midnight of December 21, 2018, the House of Representatives failed to pass a bill that would have kept the remaining elements of the Government open.  The Senate passed a bill that was approved unanimously and the House of Representatives was willing to vote on it until the President decided that he couldn't have a bill that wouldn't fund his border wall.  As a result, parts of the government were shut down unless they were considered essential.
Homeland Security was one of the elements that was shut down but because the border patrol is considered as "essential", they are being forced to work without pay.  They missed their paycheck on January 15th and are likely to miss the next paycheck.  Based on what I'm reading and seeing on the news, it doesn't sound like there is going to be an end to this.
So why do I show the Border Patrol first?  Mainly because central to the shutdown is the idea that we can build a wall (or fence or iron slats or whatever) that will span our border with Mexico.  There is currently a fence (or whatever you want to call it) that pretty much covers the California, Arizona and New Mexico borders.  It doesn't cover areas where there is a natural barrier (i.e., a river, desert or mountain) that helps to stop immigrants.  Nor does it cover the Texas border.  There are two reasons for that, much of the land that has the fence was already owned by the Federal Government.  That is not the case in Texas.  Two, the Rio Grande River pretty much flows from El Paso to the Gulf of Mexico.  While it's not entirely impassable, there are parts that are.  The government was starting to build the fence in parts of Texas but they ran into all sorts of legal troubles.
According to the President we need this wall in order to stop drug and criminal traffic from entering the United States.  When you look at the numbers, illegal immigration was trending downward before the President entered office.  Much of that is due to the improved economic activity in the Central and Southern American countries these people were coming from.  In fact, many of the illegal immigrants in the United States are people that have overstayed their visas.
So border policy is touted as the central reason to the debate.  Personally, I think there are better methods to dealing with the issues than a wall.  I'm sure the wall helps somewhat but you need other things to go with it.  You certainly need an increased border presence.  Walls can be scaled over or tunneled under and that's been shown.
The interesting part is that since Border Enforcement falls under the Department of Homeland Security, it's members are expected to report to their jobs despite not getting paid.  I have to believe that is going to have an impact on their effectiveness, especially if this drags on.

 This leads us to the Coast Guard.  The President says that the wall will help stem the flow of drugs into the country.  You know what else helps stem the flow of drugs into this country?  The Coast Guard.  I read somewhere that the Coast Guard stops more drugs than the other law enforcement services combined.  And that is after stopping one out of every five drug shipments they know about.  Imagine if their funding was increased what they could do.

 I would imagine they could afford a couple more cutters like the Escanaba here.  These cutters play a large role in stopping the drugs coming into the country.  I think they also play a role in the illegal immigrants that come to the United States by boat.  When you look at the coast of the United States, it makes the Mexican border look tiny.

 The Coast Guard also plays a large role in commerce because they keep the channels cleared and marked.  Again, I have to believe that their effectiveness is decreasing because they have other things on their mind.

 And factor in their search and rescue mission.  The Coast Guard was already taxed before the shutdown.  I can't imagine what worrying about paychecks does to their morale.

Which leads us to another part that is affected by the shutdown.  The FAA falls under the Department of Transportation.  The Department of Transportation is not currently funded which means the FAA is not currently funded.  This means that all of our air traffic controllers are working without a paycheck.  Again, this was a stressful job, so why add this level of stress?  The FAA is unable to conduct its other role in the form of accident investigation.

Apparently the IRS is not funded, so people may not get their refund checks.  The SNAP program is not funded and it is projected to run out of money by the beginning of March.  The EPA is also currently on furlough.  I already mentioned the national parks.

There are many people that say, "Fund the wall".  Why should we fund something that we aren't 100% sure of its effectiveness?  It's like many things with this administration, they prefer the flash to the things of substance.  A wall looks like something it being done and usually the more effective means of border control are things that aren't readily apparent.  As Patton said, "Fixed fortifications are a monument to the stupidity of man.  We've conquered the oceans and mountains, anything built by man can be conquered".  Apparently that gets tested every day.  And if they give in, what's the prevent another act of hostage taking?

I just have this feeling of dread that something drastic is going to have to happen.  I also have a feeling of dread that we've been playing with house money for too long.  There are other components to all of this that I haven't mentioned.  So I don't know what happens from here.