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‘No Cave!’: Trump Won’t End Shutdown without ‘Powerful Wall’ Funding

Last Updated September 23, 2020 12:22 PM
Mark Emem
Last Updated September 23, 2020 12:22 PM

By CCN.com: U.S. President Donald Trump has vowed to not let up on his demand for a border wall. In a Tuesday morning tweet, Trump vowed to fulfill his key campaign promise as he accused Democrats of playing “political games” with the government shutdown.

With the Democrats showing little enthusiasm for a proposal Trump floated over the weekend to reopen the government, the shutdown is likely to drag on with no end in sight. The partial government shutdown entered its 32nd day on Tuesday, more than 10 days longer compared to the previous record.

Senate Republicans to Table Bill Containing Trump’s Ideas

Despite the Democrats rejecting the deal, Senate Republicans are set to announce a bill  designed around Trump’s weekend proposal. In a subsequent tweet, Trump hailed the unity the Republicans were exhibiting with regards to border security.

While Trump has vowed not to “cave,” his calculation could change if the shutdown’s impact on the economy becomes significant. This is in light of the fact that economic growth and job creation are among his most-prized successes.

Recently, White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett warned that the shutdown was reducing economic growth by 0.13% per week.

Worries of Bigger Impact on Economy if Government Does not Reopen

JPMorgan Chase CEO, Jamie Dimon, also recently warned that economic growth could fall to zero if the shutdown continued beyond Q1.

With about 800,000 federal government employees furloughed, some of the hardest hit sectors are air transportation and retail. In aviation, airlines’ business plans have been jeopardized as Federal Aviation Administration officials cannot approve new routes and jets.

There are also longer airport security lines at airports as the number of screeners not reporting for duty has hit a record high. Over the weekend the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), which has a 51,000-strong workforce, reported that employee absenteeism had reached 10%.

America’s third-largest airline by domestic market share, Delta, has estimated that it will lose $25 million in revenues in January as a result of the shutdown.

IPOs Not Being Approved Creating Backlog

The initial public offering market is also being clogged up by the partial government shutdown. Nasdaq’s CEO, Adena Friedman, has indicated that the IPO approval process has been disrupted by the standoff, per Yahoo Finance :

When you can’t actually bring any IPOs to market in the month of January then you’re starting to squeeze essentially the pipeline into a shorter time horizon. We’d like to provide for a nice spread out environment for companies to be able to tap the public markets.

Featured Image from AFP