THE WONDER OF IT ALL

The attached article is a bit out there. But, it just could be true. If so, Democrats may pay an enormous price for underestimating Donald Trump:

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/01/trumps_shutdown_trap.html

One of the major problems with the establishment in both parties is that they are totally focused on the status quo. They really believe that the way things are is the way things have always been and the way things always must be. Donald Trump does not think that way at all. It is one reason members of the establishment in both parties hate him. He just doesn’t listen. His enemies always assume this is because he is too uneducated, too arrogant or too stupid to realize they are right. But what if they are the ones who got this wrong?

The conventional wisdom is that government shutdowns are bad and the party held responsible pays a heavy price. But pundits are famous for predicting terrible results that never actually happen. For example, ask any pundit and they will tell you that Republicans paid a high price for impeaching Bill Clinton. But did they really? Bill Clinton’s impeachment trial began on January 7, 1999. It lasted five weeks. The vote to acquit him of perjury was 55 to 45, even though it was patently obvious that he did commit perjury. The vote on obstruction of justice was 50/50. Clinton apologized to the American people and he was later disbarred.

So if Republicans were punished, this should have been apparent in the 2000 election. Republicans did lose some seats in the House, but they still maintained the majority. By the way, they lost exactly two seats, while the Democrats won one and there was one independent. Democrats gained 4 seats in the Senate, but since the result was a 50/50 split, Republicans retained control. George W. Bush won the Presidency. So, while this was not a great result for Republicans, it is hard to make the case that they were punished all that much. When the dust cleared there was a Republican President, a Republican House and a Republican Senate.

I previous wrote about how Republicans arguably gained by shutting down the government to repeal Obamacare. But what if this shutdown wasn’t actually about the border wall/barrier at all? What if President Trump wanted the shutdown because if it lasted long enough, he would have the authority to lay some federal workers off – permanently! While the main stream media was hyperventilated on the impact of the partial shutdown, Trump may have been counting the hours until he passed the point of no return.

If Chuck and Nancy don’t fold, within just a few hours, Trump will have the power to take the necessary action to permanently reduce the bureaucracy. In case you think this is a stretch, he already refused to give federal employees a pay raise. If there one thing Trump is good at it is firing people. The stupidity of Schumer and Pelosi, shutting down the government to prevent funding something they actually think is a good idea may have just given Trump the opportunity to deal a fatal blow to the federal bureaucracy. Even if this was not the plan, it may be exactly what Trump wanted and needed.

This is one case where the RIF’s rules actually favor Trump. He can lay off the younger, less tenured workers first, which means a high percentage of people who came on board during the Obama administration are at risk. The majority of people who came on board during the Clinton administration are already gone. It could be a beautiful thing. The wonder of it all.

TDM