Since December 22, 2018, the United States government has been partially “shutdown.” This means that “essential” employees must continue to work without pay until the government reopens. These include medical professionals in veteran hospitals, transportation security administration officers, and air traffic controllers.
About 420,000 employees are considered “essential,” and are working without pay. An estimated 380,000 have been ordered to stay home, without pay.
The Longest Government Shutdown In US History
This has become the longest US government shutdown in history.
The pain many families are feeling from not receiving their paychecks is well-documented. Every news station and newspaper has reported on this issue. People are not able to pay their mortgage, rent, utilities, buy food, gas, and other essential items. Fortunately, there are several banks and credit unions helping federal workers during this difficult time.
What Is The Problem?
President Donald Trump argues that the porous southern border is a state of emergency. Funding is needed to build the wall (wait, wasn’t Mexico paying for this). The wall will, hopefully, secure our border and prevent criminals from entering the country. The wall will help keep out murderers, rapists, and criminals that are bringing in drugs.
The President’s opponents argue that the $5.7 billion requested to fund the wall will do little to stop illegal immigrants from entering the country.
In return, Nancy Pelosi and the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives has offered only $1.6 billion to fund the wall.
Because the President and the Democrats cannot reach an agreement, over 800,000 people are not receiving their paychecks.
This is the state of politics in 2019.
Is $5.7 Billion Really A Big Number?
To the average citizen, $5.7 billion is a really large amount of money. That’s a lot of money to me. And it should be a lot of money to the government, too.
But is $5.7 billion really a big number for the federal government?
Well, let’s see.
The U.S. National Debt Clock shows that the federal deficit is almost $22 trillion and is adding another trillion every single year. This means that the debt per citizen is $66,847 and the debt per taxpayer is $179,464 (not all citizens pay taxes).
Let’s put this in context. Each child born in the United States, even before they have their first cry or diaper change, is responsible for repaying $66,847 of the national debt.
The interest payment on the national debt this year alone will cost the United States $364 billion. That’s from the federal budget for the fiscal year 2019 (October 1, 2018 through September 30, 2019). Just making interest payments on the debt will costs the government over $7 billion each week.
The cost to build the wall is less than one week’s interest bill to keep rolling the debt!
Let’s stop playing politics and pretending that $5.7 billion is a lot of money.
We are talking about an expenditure that amounts to 0.02% of the national debt.
The fight between Donald Trump and the Democrats is not about keeping us safe or managing debt. It’s about dirty politics and each side opposing the other.
It just shows how pathetic our elected leaders have become and that you cannot trust the government to save you, ever.
The debt ceiling and government shutdown masks and even bigger problem, that is seldom discussed by politicians and the media.
There is a looming problem that is 10,000 times bigger than the $5.7 billion the President is requesting to fund the wall
While our elected politicians are bickering about the cost to build a wall and have shut down the government, there is another financial problem in front of them that is more dangerous than border security and threatens even more American lives. This problem is 10,000 times bigger than the current one.
However, Congress and the President has not done anything about it. They ignore it by sticking their head in the sand. Maybe they are hoping that if they don’t acknowledge it the problem will just go away.
Although the problem has not been fixed, no one has even hinted or demanded that the government be shut down.
What is the problem? The problem is with Social Security and Medicare.
Social Security including Medicare is $50 trillion underfunded by the government’s own estimates.
With the declines in population growth, there are no longer enough workers paying into the system to support the program’s current recipients. Last year, in 2018, became the first time Social Security ran a deficit since 1982.
But wait, it gets worse.
According to the Trustee’s own projections, the Social Security program will continue running larger and larger deficits until it becomes fully depleted by 2034.
With 1-in-3 Baby Boomers having only between $0-$25,000 in retirement savings, they will desperately need every penny of social security benefits promised to them to make ends meet. And even that probably won’t be enough to live comfortably.
In the case of Medicare, the Board of Trustees project that its largest trust fund will be depleted in 2026, just seven short years away.
Why isn’t the federal government addressing this national problem that clearly will affect more people than 3,000 illegal immigrants moving towards the border?
There Are Bigger Fish to Fry
I support safe borders and don’t believe it should be easy for people to come into the country illegally. However, I believe there are bigger problems the government should be trying to address.
The President and the Democrats should not be shutting down the government over a $5.7 billion border wall (that Mexico was supposed to pay for) when there is a $50 trillion problem that will affect millions of retirees in the not too distant future.
I know the President wants to keep his campaign promise (or risk being condemned by Ann Coulter) to build the wall. However, there was a bigger promise made to the American people – that if you pay into the Social Security Trust Fund you could expect to receive full benefits payments when you retire.
Unless something radically changes now, the United States will break this promise, and a lot more than 800,000 people will be at risk of not getting paid.
Final Takeaway
Based on the government’s response to those affected by the government shutdown, there is no reason for you to believe that anything will be any different in 2034 when the situation is far worse than it is now.
When this time comes, don’t look to the federal government for any support. Start planning ahead by developing multiple streams of income and a sidehustle to expand your earning potential.