Trump Loved Shutting Down the Government… Until Now

When House Republicans sought to shut down the government in the as a way to stop the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, Trump was a cheerleader for the effort.  Trump tweeted that the Republican leadership should not be afraid of a government shutdown. They should be afraid of not defunding ObamaCare.   Trump argued in 2013 that a shutdown was not a big deal because “all essential services continue,” linking to an Associated Press explainer on how shutdowns work, and claiming that it showed the federal government could get by with fewer employees.

Now that a government shutdown has occurred during the Trump presidency, he is blaming the Democrats, even though Republicans control the House, the Senate, and he is the President.  Trump has made building the wall more important than his efforts to end DACA.  Large majorities of the public don’t believe building a wall is the solution to the country’s immigration problems — and most never believed President Donald Trump’s much-promised wall would get built in the first place. Six in 10 people in a recent CBS News pollopposed building the wall; 85% said that the US — and not Mexico as Trump has promised — would ultimately pay for it.

Perhaps that is why Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan have gone WAY out in the past to assure everyone that the government won’t happen.

Trump’s shutdown threat could make history — and not in a good way

“I don’t think a government shutdown is necessary, and I don’t think most people want to see a government shutdown, ourselves included,” Ryan said.

Yet, Trump predicted the shut down.  “Believe me, if we have to close down our government, we’re building that wall,” Trump promised a cheering Arizona crowd during a wild campaign rally.

Government shutdowns, historically speaking, are almost always a very bad thing for the side that gets the blame.  The shutdowns of late 1995 and early 1996 — which then-Speaker Newt Gingrich forced under the belief it would hurt President Bill Clinton mortally in advance of his re-election bid — turned into an unmitigated disaster for the GOP. The shutdown was the beginning of Clinton’s political comeback, and he coasted to victory in November 1996. Two years later, Gingrich and Republicans suffered major losses in the House — and Gingrich quit.

The 2013 government shutdown — which lasted 16 days and was triggered by Republican Sen. Ted Cruz’s demands over defunding Obamacare — looked to, again, be a huge problem for congressional Republicans. Their poll numbers dipped badly during the closures and the shutdown’s immediate aftermath.

Trump hits GOP leadership on debt ceiling ‘mess’

But the mishaps of healthcare.gov — a slow-motion collapse that began in October and continued well into 2014 — turned into a godsend for Republicans. It reminded their voters of who was still in charge in Washington (President Barack Obama, a Democrat) and made the country, largely, forget about how Republican majorities in the House and Senate were responsible for the shutdown.

There’s one crucial difference between 2013 and today, however: Republicans control the executive andlegislative branches of government. There is no Obama or Obamacare to scapegoat. There is no botched rollout of a website to villainize. Just Trump, Ryan and McConnell. And no repeal and replace of Obamacare (or much else, legislatively speaking).

 Today the shutdown continues with no sign of an end any time soon!