Bert Dirschell
Centertown
Dear Editor:
As I write this the federal government has been “shut down” for 19 days. Has the “shutdown” negatively impacted your life?
About 25 percent of the 400+ federal agencies have been “shut down.” The Washington Post reported that 800,000 federal workers, out of over 2 million, will not be getting a paycheck on time. Their combined salaries total $1.4 billion per week. These workers will get paid, just not on time. I suspect that we will also be on the hook for overtime pay as they “catch up” with the work they would have done if they weren’t on vacation. If the shutdown lasts three weeks the “vacation pay” will cost taxpayers more than what President Trump wants for the wall.
During the 2013 government shutdown Sen. Rand Paul commented that it costs taxpayers more to shut down the government than to keep it running. Politifact evaluated his statement and commented, “We found that this was true. The government still functioned partially during the shutdown, and furloughed employees got back pay. On top of doling out delayed payments, the government faced late payment penalties and other logistical costs associated with preparing or recuperating from two weeks of stalled activity. They also lost revenue from national parks and museums.
The following is a list of the departments with the largest number of furloughed workers. Eighty-two percent of Treasury Department workers (72,000 furloughed), 75 percent of Agriculture Dept workers (71,000), 78 percent of Interior Department workers (53,000), 13 percent of Homeland Security workers (32,000) and 38 percent of Transportation Department workers (21,000 – why do we need over 54,000 federal transportation workers).
I reject the charge that those of us who want secure borders are racists. We would rather have U.S. citizens take the millions of unfilled jobs, but we welcome legal, pro-U.S., skilled immigrants who will be self-supporting.
In a 2013 CNN poll 62 percent of Americans thought increased border security should be our main immigration focus. 49 percent of Democrats favored it. A recent Quinnipiac poll says that 43 percent support a wall while 54 percent oppose one. Only 10 percent of Democrats now think building a wall is necessary. Is this Trump Derangement Syndrome? Around 5 percent of our population is here illegally, Do you wonder how illegals, and their relatives, voted in the poll?