PD Editorial: Stop future government shutdown threats

Many Americans let out a sigh of relief when a disgruntled President Donald Trump signed a bill to fund the government through the rest of the fiscal year, ending the specter of another damaging shutdown.

Trump was dissatisfied with the deal, which provided far less money for border barriers than he had sought, and nearly refused to sign, according to reports. Trump only relented when Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell agreed to support Trump's unwise decision to declare a national emergency to fund a border wall.

This fiasco - a 35-day government shutdown that hurt hundreds of thousands of people and cost the U.S. economy as much as $11 billion - should end America's tolerance for shutdown politics.

Indeed, many lawmakers are trying to find ways to disarm this tactic and ensure that the threat of a shutdown can no longer be used to try to wring policy concessions from the other party.

Even Republicans - the party responsible for most recent shutdowns, including one in 2013 over funding the Affordable Care Act - seem to have lost their taste for this approach after they bore the brunt of the blame during the latest shutdown.

Both Republicans and Democrats have introduced legislation that would prevent or discourage future shutdowns through various mechanisms.

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Virginia, may win the prize for the best bill title - “Stop Shutdowns Transferring Unnecessary Pain and Inflicting Damage in the Coming Years Act,” or the Stop STUPIDITY Act.

Warner's bill would automatically fund government at current levels, except for the legislative branch and the office of the president, when agreement on a new funding bill can't be reached.

Several other bills take similar approaches.

Government shutdowns - there have been 21 since 1976 - are essentially an exercise in hostage-taking. One party threatens to purposefully harm the country to win a policy argument outside the normal legislative process. They would deny pay to hundreds of thousands of federal employees and contractors while risking both national security and public safety in numerous ways.

The same can be said for brinkmanship over increasing the debt ceiling - a game Republicans played during the Obama presidency.

Finding legislative solutions to disarm this threat is a good idea, and we hope Congress does so. Some warn that automatic continuing resolutions, if not set up properly, could allow congressional Republicans to institute severe budget cuts without votes. Unless the continuing resolutions account for both inflation and increased population, the practical result would be significant loss of funding for essential programs.

Others worry that this approach would take pressure off Congress and the president to actually reach full-year funding agreements, heightening budgeting uncertainty.

California's requirement for a two-thirds legislative majority to pass a budget led to many crises and shutdowns until voters rescinded it with Proposition 25 in 2010. A federal legislative fix won't be as simple, but finding one is important.

The Democrats' refusal to negotiate during the shutdown was prudent only if they're ready to break the cycle. Negotiating with hostage-takers guarantees more hostages will be threatened.

The damage and dangers of shutdowns are too severe to take chances, especially under a president willing to buck traditional leadership norms to achieve his churlish agenda.

You can send a letter to the editor at letters@pressdemocrat.com