THE United States government shut down yesterday after last-ditch efforts by lawmakers to pass a spending bill failed.
Speaking to reporters at the White House, President Donald Trump warned that he would use the shutdown to take actions that are ‘bad’ for Democrats.
‘We can do things during the shutdown that are irreversible, that are bad for them and irreversible by them, like cutting vast numbers of people out, cutting things that they like, cutting programmes that they like,’ Trump said, adding that ‘a lot of good’ can come from government shutdowns.
Those deemed essential workers, such as law enforcement officers, military personnel and air traffic controllers, will remain on the job, but will go without pay for the duration of the shutdown.
Social security and food assistance will continue to be paid out.
But while hundreds of thousands of federal employees were placed on temporary leave and received back pay upon returning to work during previous shutdowns, Trump threatened that he will use the current funding lapse to fire a ‘lot of people’.
‘And they’re Democrats; they’re going to be Democrats,’ Trump said.
Richard Painter, the chief White House ‘ethics lawyer’ under former President George W Bush, called the threats ‘typical of President Trump’s strong-arm tactics’.
‘He is threatening federal workers with termination if there is a shutdown,’ Painter said.
‘Some of what he is threatening, he may be able to do, but much of it is not authorised by Congress, including firing federal workers with civil service job protection.’
The shutdown comes after weeks of bickering between Democrats and Republicans over how to keep the government open.
Democrats earlier this month rejected a Republican-drafted stopgap spending bill to keep the government running for nine more weeks, arguing that the measure must include provisions to expand healthcare coverage by extending soon-to-expire subsidies for the Affordable Care Act, aka ‘Obamacare’, and reversing Medicaid cuts included in Trump’s ‘One Big Beautiful Bill Act’.
Hakeem Jeffries, the leader of the Democrats in the House of Representatives, accused Republicans of voting to ‘hurt everyday Americans’.