by Tom Zawistowski
President Trump is threatening a partial government shutdown if Congress does not include $5 billion in partial funding for the purpose of building the border wall that he and Republicans in the House and the Senate have promised for years. A border wall that Democrats Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden and Barack Obama all voted for in the past and claimed was necessary as recently as 2006.
Now all we hear from delusional Democrat hypocrites, and some “Republicans”, is that “Walls Don’t Work”, “It costs too much”, “Walls are immoral”, “Walls are racist”, “Everyone has a ‘Right’ to cross our borders”, etc. The inconvenient facts are that the border wall in Israel stopped 99% of illegal immigration ; that the one time cost of $25 billion needed to build the wall would actually save billions of our taxpayer dollars per year that are required to “take care of” illegal immigrants once they are in our nation; that building a wall would save thousands of lives of American citizens who die each year from heroin and fentanyl – 94% of which comes across the southern border that building a wall would stop the tragic deaths of thousands of illegal “people of color” immigrants who die trying to cross the border now, and would stop the child trafficking and crimes committed against American citizens by illegal immigrants once they break into our nation. In the heartland of Ohio, we consider that what the sophisticated folks on the coasts would call “a compelling case” for building the border wall.
That is why We the People support President Trump’s common sense stand on the wall and will support a partial shutdown of the federal government for as long as it takes to get what we voted for and what is clearly in our national interests as a sovereign nation. It’s really simple, no wall funding then no government funding. Democrats shout “a shutdown over Christmas will be cruel to government workers” and “shutdowns cost money, they don’t save money” and “the American public does not support shutdowns”, so the party responsible “loses” the next election. To which we say emphatically, “We don’t believe a word of it!”
The reality is that when Ted Cruz forced a government shutdown in 2013 We the People supported him for doing so, just as we support Trump today It was cowardly “Republicans” who did not support Cruz but the direct result was that in 2014 We the People elected more Republicans to the Senate, resulting in Republicans taking control of the US Senate. That is called winning, not losing, but not if you are in Washington, DC where lies are way more effective than facts. Those same Washington insiders claim that shutdowns cost “billions of dollars” when the fact is that most of that “cost” is paying “non-essential” government employees back wages for the time they did not work during a shutdown. So in effect, the actual affect of a government shutdown is taxpayer-funded paid Christmas vacations for as many as 850,000 already overpaid government employees! Wow that sure sound cruel Speaker to be Pelosi – cruel to US not them!
However, in the spirit of Obama crony Rahm Emanuel’s infamous political advice “Never let a crisis go to waste!” we would like to ask President Trump to do what he has done so well as President and use his business acumen during this partial government shutdown. See even the Democrats admit that a government shutdown doesn’t actually shutdown the government since all “essential” services continue. What happens is that “non-essential” government employees are furloughed until the budget is passed.
So to those of us who are business owners and President Trump, the glaring question that a government shutdown posses is “Why would any business have any “non-essential” employees?” Seriously, why would any business spend precious resources on employees it doesn’t need other than nepotism. Isn’t that what this really is in our government – nepotism? How many of these “non-essential” government workers are politically connected or family and friends of current and previous elected and non-elected officials? So why not use the pretend crisis of a government shutdown instead of wasting it?
President Trump should instruct current Budget Director, soon to be acting Chief of Staff, Mick Mulvaney to order all agencies of the federal government to audit every single “non-essential” government employee job during the shutdown to determine if those jobs could be eliminated. Since they are not needed to keep the government running certainly a huge number of them could be permanently eliminated – which would actually result in a shutdown saving taxpayers money, and in smaller and more efficient government! What a great idea!
How much could we save? If 850,000 federal employees get furloughed as “non-essential” during a shutdown, what if we could eliminate even 400,000 of those jobs? Knowing people working in DC it would be very safe to say that each job that was eliminated would save taxpayers at least $100,000 in wages and benefits and thus the President could save $40,000,000,000. That’s $40 BILLION PER YEAR! Now that is the kind of outside-the-box thinking and management we should expect from President Donald Trump and we would support!
If the Democrats and RINO Republicans want to play a game of chicken with the border wall funding, why don’t we up the stakes? While they deny We the People our national sovereignty and national security to please their ruling class masters, and ignore our votes and their promises, how about if we put some of their skin in the game Mr. President? I can hear the swamp creatures thrashing about in those muddy waters along the Potomac at the thought of such a creative solution. “You can’t do that!” they will shout! Well besides chanting “Build that Wall” at the top of our lungs for the past three years, you also heard clearly our shouts to “Drain the Swamp!” Now is the time Mr. President, No wall funding – No government funding! Let’s stand our ground and shut it down and let’s not waste a good crisis when we have the chance to drain the swamp at the same time.
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Tom Zawistowski is the President of the TEA Party affiliated We the People Convention and the Executive Director of the Portage County TEA Party. He lives in Akron, OH.
