Rachel McClurg
Editor-in-Chief
Don’t get me wrong, I’m a Trump supporter, but the government shutdowns can have more negative effects than positive ones. This partial government shutdown was brought about because President Donald Trump requested over $5 billion to build the wall. To say that not everyone was on board with this request is an understatement.
Government employees, for example, are missing paychecks. According to The New York Times, the shutdown affected close to 800,000 employees.
Now, this was a partial government shutdown, which most people are probably aware of. The specific parts of the government that were affected, according to The New York Times include Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, the Interior, Justice State, Transportation and the Treasury and the Environmental Protection Agency.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) also halted their normal inspections. This is a concern because of the fact that the FDA is responsible for inspecting around “160 domestic manufacturing and food processing plants each week,” New York Times reporter Sheila Kaplan said. That put these plants at “high risk of causing Food-borne illnesses,” Kaplan said.
Though this government shutdown only lasted five weeks, several sources including The New York Times concluded that it costed the economy roughly $11 billion.
Trump has also threatened to shut down the government again if his requests for The Wall are not met.
Lastly, this could be an unpopular opinion, but being that I am conservative I believe in little government control. So things like this tend to get under my skin. A government shutdown that denies citizens access to things is an issue. For example, health risks were involved when the FDA could not do their job and that is unacceptable. Our health should not be put at risk, period.
