USA faces a Budget crisis that threatens with Leave much of the Federal Administration paralyzed. If Congress does not approve before the midnight from Tuesday to Wednesday a new budget, a Government closure: the suspension most public activitiesexcept those considered essential, such as those that affect national security. It is a habitual political pressure tool in Washington, but with immediate consequences for millions of citizens and may be of historical proportions on this occasion, because the president Donald Trump has already revealed that The temporal could be permanenteif it serves your Agenda and ideology.
He Federal closure could affect hundreds of thousands of public employeesforced to stay at home without salary or work without until further notice. However, what were once collateral damage have become a political objective major. The justification es cut out public spending, but the intention goes furthersince the positions of the Trump administration will be those who do not go aligned with the marked ideology. All as long as the White House have a unprecedented control of one more leg of the public sector.
More than 100,000 officials present their resignation Formal this Tuesday, forced by the Trump administration plan with which Eliminate 275,000 public service providers positionshe Greater cut in a single year since World War II. The White House defends that the measure, in which Entrance will spend 14,800 million dollars, It will save 28,000 million annual In the long term.
Trump without sufficient majorities
The agreement seems distant. Trump canceled last week A meeting with Democratic leaders of the minorities of Congress (Hakeem Jeffries) and Senate (Chuck Schumer), claiming that it would not be “productive.” The displacement enraged to his interlocutors, who blamed him directly by bringing to the limit, on purpose, the risk of federal paralysis. A new meeting is scheduled Monday afternoon en Washington DC.
The partisan fight intensified last week, when the Senate rejected provisional measures to avoid government closurewhich had to endorse after the House of Representatives, controlled by the Republicans, approved by a narrow margin a financing bill.
Los Democrats of the congress are low pressure to use their Influence to stand up to Trump and its administration. In March, the Democrats in Congress have already provided the necessary votes to approve a short -term financing measure written by Republicans without obtaining any concession, a measure that angry at the base of the party.
This time, in exchange for their votes in the Senate, the Democrats They demand an extension of medical insurance subsidies of people with lower income and the revocation of the health cuts that Trump brought forward with his Bus Law which he baptized as the “Big and Bella Law.” This has become the flake around which a democratic opposition begins to articulate Until very fragmented.
The minority leader of the House of Representatives, Hakeem Jeffries, Democrat for New York, speaks with journalists before he and the main leaders of the Congress are heading to the White House to meet with President Donald Trump and treat the impending government financing crisis, in the Capitol, in Washington DC / J. Scott boilwhite / AP
Permanent dismissal plans
What distinguishes this crisis from the above is the Radical turn in the official strategy. In a memorandum released on Wednesday, the Budget Office ordered the agencies not only to prepare files of temporary leave, but also Permanent dismissal plans in programs that lose financing and “do not conform to the president’s priorities”. Never before had an administration linked a government closure with the definitive elimination of federal jobs. And, in addition, subordinate to these public workers aligning with the ideology of the party in the White House.
Republican senator John Thune defended that the priority must be to keep the government open and then address the Democratic demands. But Nor do all Republicans agree. Voices such as Senator Susan Collins warned that workers “should not be treated as pawns.” The unions, on the other hand, denounce that the mass resignation plan “undermines mandatory legal functions” and have taken the case to the courts.
Effects on citizens and economy
The highest closure of the Government of History was also under Trump, in 2018, and lasted 34 days. National parks, museums such as Smithsonian and slowed air transport were closed. This time, analysts warn that damage could go further: stop economic growth, alter markets and erode trust citizen in the functioning of the State.
He outcome It will depend on what happens in the Senate this Tuesday, a few hours before the deadline. With the two cameras more polarized than everThe political agreement seems difficult. Yeah fails The vote, the country will enter a closure with characteristics unpublished: The first one that could Transform temporary cuts into permanent dismissals for hundreds of thousands of public employees.
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