The partial government shutdown started early morning on December 22.  We are now two weeks into a government shutdown that has left 800,000 employees without paychecks (although many of them are expected to work without pay during that time).  That’s 800,000 employees – but we should think of them as belonging to 800,000 households.  At 2.6 persons per average American household, that’s over 2,000,000 Americans.  The Americans in those affected households undoubtedly bought Christmas presents, often with credit cards. How many of them are receiving Visa and MasterCard bills they cannot pay?  How many of those Americans could not pay their rent at the first of this month?

For a man who routinely brags (falsely) about saving jobs, he’s not doing very well.  President Trump, who stated bluntly that he would be “proud to shut down the government for border security,” that he would “take the mantle,” that he would “be the one to shut it down,” and not blame Chuck Schumer or Nancy Pelosi for it, now takes a different tune.   But does any rational person believe him?   Let’s also not forget that, during this same time frame, the President even lied to soldiers, telling them he had gotten them their biggest pay raise–10%–in 10 years.  He’s just a serial liar.  (But I digress.)

The pettiness that has brought the country to this point is staggering.  But what is even more staggering, and truly despicable, is the utter cruelty that a coddled millionaire (or maybe billionaire, who really knows?) is willing to visit upon regular Americans who work for our government, all out of personal pique.  So I have just one more question.  Other than Mitt Romney, is there a single Republican in the United States Senate who will speak out against this pettiness and this cruelty?