Government shuts down over policy, not money

The longest federal government shutdown on record is over, but another shutdown appears possible, even likely, in less than a month.

The December-January shutdown ended with President Trump announcing he would sign a bill reopening the government after 35 days and two federal paydays that didn't pay off. He agreed to a deal that he could have had 35 days earlier, but he thought it advantageous to play brinkmanship with federal agencies and employees.

What is confounding about this shutdown is that it wasn't about debt limits or federal budget deficits or excessive spending, all of which were at the heart of earlier shutdowns. Conservatives have decried the economic stupidity of spending more money than you take in, year after year after year since before Ronald Reagan decried socialism. A government shutdown over excessive spending at least reduced spending for the period of the shutdown.

But this latest shutdown, which Trump said he would proudly take responsibility for, had nothing to do with federal spending or the deficit. It wasn't about money, although Trump was insisting on $5.7 billion for a border wall or else! It was about policy, the policy of building walls to keep people out of the United States. Trump had led cheers of "Build That Wall" at his campaign rallies and had insisted that Mexico would pay for the wall. No payments came from Mexico, and Democrats in the House also refused to insert payments for a physical wall into pending budget bills.

Both sides of this debate have some reasonable points. Trump says there is a crisis on the southern border with Mexico; flows of immigrants, most of them crossing in violation of federal laws, are overwhelming federal border security. He wants a solid wall to halt the "invasion."

Democrats point out that any wall can climbed over, tunneled over or blown up by determined migrants. They are willing to increase border security spending on enforcement and surveillance. More border patrolmen and immigration judges can expedite the refugee and asylum backlog and make immigration more manageable. They will give Trump the money he wants, but not for a solid wall that doesn't really address the problem.

A congressional committee will look for a compromise that will keep the government open after the mid-month deadline, but Trump might reject their proposal. A long-term solution to the immigration problem has to involve improvements in Central American economies and law enforcement in order to give desperate citizens opportunities and hope in their native countries rather than north of the border. Combined with better U.S. border security and crackdowns on corruption south of the border, the "crisis" at the border will be resolved without a solid wall.