Day 27 of the shutdown; the president and the speaker escalated their personal tit-for-tat. After Pelosi asked the president to delay his State of the Union speech he denied her permission to travel on a government jet.
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With 800,000 federal workers and unknown numbers of citizens suffering under the ongoing US government shutdown, the acrimony between President Donald Trump and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi was taken to a new level Thursday.
At odds over the president's insistence that Congress provide $5.7 billion (€5 billion) in funds for his border wall before he agrees to reopen the government, Pelosi irked Trump on Tuesday by suggesting he delay his State of the Union (SOTU) address, scheduled to be delivered on January 29, due to lack of security funding.
The two agencies responsible for security at the event, the Secret Service and the Department of Homeland Security are directly affected by the shutdown.
Allies of the president criticized the speaker's move as "politically motivated."
President Joe Biden's government is facing a shutdown if the Republican Congress doesn't approve the budget for the coming fiscal year. DW looks at how shutdowns started, when they became partisan and how much they cost.
Image: Getty Images/D. Angerer
Sundown shutdown
As midnight approaches on September 30, it's go time for Congress: Approve a budget before the start of the new fiscal year on October 1, or shut down the government. Originally, Article I, Section 9 of the Constitution required lawmakers to approve the budget. Honing it further in 1870, the Antideficiency Act targeted agencies that spent money without asking. But deadlines were often missed.
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No money, no pay, no work
At the behest of President Jimmy Carter, the US attorney general revisited the Antideficiency Act in 1980 to answer the question: "Without a budget, are government employees required to work?" According to his Attorney General's legal opinion, no money meant no work. Carter's presidency saw only small shutdowns, but the new interpretation of the law turned shutdowns into a negotiating tactic.
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Ronald Reagan and the first shutdown
The first real shutdown — more than 240,000 workers furloughed, more than $80 million (€65 million) down the drain — occurred in November 1981. President Ronald Reagan refused to sign a budget without billions in tax cuts. The Republican-controlled Senate and the Democrat-controlled House found a solution the next day. This happened seven more times by his last year in 1989.
Image: AP
Bill Clinton and the rise of the partisan shutdown
Budget impasses were largely drama-free until 1995, when President Bill Clinton faced off against Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole and House Speaker Newt Gingrich (pictured left). The Republican-led Congress wanted a balanced budget within seven years, higher Medicare premiums and rollbacks on environment regulations. It took 27 days in total to strike a deal. The cost: at least $1 billion.
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A game for Congress, a headache for the agencies
Many departments such as the military, national security and any deemed essential to the protection of life continue working during shutdowns. But agencies such as the Internal Revenue Service, the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention must cease operations. This results in delays on tax decisions, food inspection and disease research among other problems.
Image: picture-alliance/BSIP/B. Boissonet
Barack Obama and Congress on Cruz-control
The next major shutdown came in 2013 under President Barack Obama. His Affordable Health Care Act — or Obamacare — faced stark opposition from conservative House Republicans. Led by Senator Ted Cruz, the group pushed for drastic curbs on the health care act in exchange for raising the debt ceiling. The 18-day shutdown resulted in the furlough of some 850,000 workers. The cost: $24 billion.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/C. Dharapak
Shutdown for a wall
The longest shutdown in US history so far lasted 35 days in December 2018 and January 2019. Hundreds of federal workers went without paychecks. Despite the disruption, then-President Donald Trump insisted that funding for his Mexico border wall be included in the budget. In fact, Trump had said he was prepared for the impasse to go on for years — before he gave in and reopened government.
Image: Doug Mills/UPI Photo/Imago Images
Cost of playing politics
The prohibitive cost of shutting down some government operations has not tamed the trend. Washington loses millions not just in revenue, but also in back pay, even though furloughed employees stay at home. So, time lost, work lost — and money lost. According to a 2019 estimate by ratings agency Standard and Poor's, a government shutdown costs the US roughly $6 billion per week.
Image: Imago
Shutdowns contributing to distrust?
The biggest loser is not the economy, or the party that makes the most concessions, it's the government itself. According to a Gallup poll in the aftermath of the 2013 shutdown, public dissatisfaction with the government in general rose to 33%. The previous all-time high regarding political dysfunction was 26% during the Watergate scandal.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/C. Kaster
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Shutdown politics
Washington had been waiting for a response from the president, and on Thursday it came.
Trump responded in a letter to Pelosi, informing her that she would not be allowed to use a government airplane for a scheduled trip to Afghanistan. The letter, which was tweeted by spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders, described the trip as a "public relations event" to "Brussels, Egypt and Afghanistan."
The step was highly unusual as trips to war zones are never divulged in advance.
Pelosi Chief of Staff Drew Hammill responded by clarifying the president's mischaracterization of the trip, tweeting: "The CODEL [Congressional Delegation] to Afghanistan included a required stop in Brussels for pilot rest. In Brussels, the delegation was scheduled to meet with top NATO commanders, US military leaders and key allies."
Hammill noted that the trip to Afghanistan was to "express appreciation" to US troops and did not include any stops in Egypt. He also pointed out that the president had traveled to Iraq during the shutdown and that another delegation, including trade and economy officials, will be heading to Davos next week.
Later on Thursday, Trump canceled his delegation's trip to Davos, according to a statement issued by Sanders.
Senator Lindsey Graham, often an ally of Trump, said of the feud, "One sophomoric response does not deserve another."
Graham called Pelosi's move on the State of the Union "blatantly political" but said, "President Trump denying Speaker Pelosi military travel to visit our troops in Afghanistan, our allies in Egypt and NATO is also inappropriate."