On Saturday, December 22, 2018, the United States Government went into a partial shutdown because of President Trump’s demand for funding for a barrier on the southern border with Mexico.  Democratic leaders have outright rejected the barrier, mainly because of it was a campaign promise of Donald Trump.

Democratic leaders have stated they have no intent to make a deal with Trump if it includes funding for a barrier on the southern border.  Fox News reports, “Over the weekend, the president offered a compromise deal to Democrats to re-open shuttered government agencies, saying he is prepared to back a three-year extension of protections young people brought into the country illegally as children, and extend protections for 300,000 recipients of the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program in return for the border money.  Though some Democrats once pushed for those same protections for immigrants, Pelosi and Schumer have indicated they aren’t willing to budge on border wall funding.”

Republicans feel what this shutdown boils down to is that the Democratic leaders would rather see our President Donald Trump fail on his campaign promise and are not willing to look at the safety of this nation.  While this shutdown is in place, Republicans claim leaders Pelosi and Schumer are vacationing on lobbyist funded money and are living it up because they refuse to compromise with Trump. The Hill reports, “Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) defended her vacation to Hawaii during the government shutdown, taking a jab at President Trump on the day she is set to be elected House Speaker. 

In an interview with NBC’s Savannah Guthrie on “Today,” Pelosi said that maybe Trump “doesn’t realize” Hawaii is in the U.S. and that she would have been easily able to return to Washington if necessary.”

Instead of the parties bickering back and forth like children, many experts agree that both parties need to sit at the negotiating table and do what is best for this country to secure our borders and make this nation a safer place for its people.