To paraphrase T.S. Eliot: This is the way the Schumer Shutdown ends -- not with a bang, but a lecture.
Late last night, Donald Trump delivered a speech accusing Chuck Schumer and his caucus of costing the US over $1.5 billion in the shutdown, and accused him of catering to "extremists." Trump called for an end to the filibuster, accused Democrats of plotting to get rid of it in the future anyway, and took advantage of the camera time to review the highlights of his first year in office. Call it a brief preview of the State of the Union speech, if you will.
Trump then signed the bill, allowing the government to reopen:
What next? The Wall Street Journal offers a primer:
Federal agencies should begin resuming their activities, though the restart might vary agency by agency. For example, a State Department spokesman said that once the government reopens, the department expects to “immediately resume operations, including returning to normal staffing levels, activities and programming,” and that employees will return to work the next business day.
HHS employees were told to be prepared to return to work Thursday once Trump signs the bill.
Once they return, federal workers will have to play catch-up. “All of their work will have been piling up while they have been gone,” said Max Stier, president and chief executive of the Partnership for Public Service, a nonpartisan group that promotes an effective civil service. “It’s going to be a mess.”
The bureaucrats have to return to workpiles. The FAA and the airlines have to unwind a logistical nightmare:
The end of the government shutdown doesn’t mean travelers will immediately escape the specter of flight cancellations and delays. It will be days—perhaps longer—before U.S. air travel snaps back to normal.
Airlines need time to adjust schedules after the Federal Aviation Administration required a reduction in the volume of flights at 40 airports. Low air-traffic-control staffing weighed on the FAA before the shutdown, and that problem is likely to persist in the weeks ahead.
Kevin Hassett, director of the White House National Economic Council, told Fox News on Monday he has “high confidence” that by the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy will get the aviation system “almost back to normal.”
Every traveler going through America's airports will have good reason to wonder what Democrats thought they would gain from this strategy. SNAP recipients who may still not get benefits for days or even weeks can keep asking themselves about Schumer & Co's professed commitment to the poor. Federal workers are probably too radicalized to ever part from the Democrat Party and its candidates, but their confidence in Democrat and progressive leadership has to be shaken to some extent.
Every single one of these groups has clear reasons to question whether Democrats actually care more about their "extremists" than the vast majority of voters. Those questions won't end with the shutdown.
Editor’s Note: The Schumer Shutdown is finally over. Rather than put the American people first, Chuck Schumer and the radical Democrats forced a government shutdown for healthcare for illegals. They own this. Donald Trump and the GOP refused to be played, and progressives are now in full freak-out mode.
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