Congress's job is to fund the United
States government they control the purse
strings but for the past four months
Congress has been in a perpetual
shutdown watch over a couple basic
issues immigration whether to fund
long-standing programs like the
children's health insurance program and
how to pay for all these natural
disasters we saw in 2017 basically
Senate Democrats are saying we're not
giving you votes for the spending bill
until you increase disaster aid for
Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands
the thing that makes funding a
government so difficult for Congress is
you basically have to do it with
bipartisan votes so that means whatever
parties in power needs the other party
to cooperate that also means that that
other party gets to put its foot down
and say no I'm not going to give you
votes unless you do X Y & Z that puts
both parties in really tough positions
right Republicans can decide to either
compromise or risk getting blamed for a
government shutdown happening on their
watch Democrats could get a chance to
extract some big policy victories like
on immigration and government spending
but they also might be seen as
obstructionists so Congress has fallback
is to pass a short-term spending bill
and experts say that's probably what
will happen if Congress can't come to
agreement on these big issues in the
next couple weeks but there's a
complicating factor here and that's
President Trump he has been really
really hard line on getting money for
his wall not a fence not more border
security a wall on the us-mexico border
that something Democrats absolutely
won't do so you know Congress passes the
budget the president is the one who
signs it into law
never say never with President Trump
it's quite possible he vetoes even a
short-term spending bill to try to get
Congress to do something on his wall
passing these short-term spending bills
month after month makes it really
difficult for the government to function
but things could get a lot worse if
Congress can't pass any spending bill
and it shuts down we saw that happen in
2013 and if it shuts down for a couple
days basically anyone who wants to go to
a national park National Museums like
all the ones here along the mall in DC
those are closed off but the longer a
shutdown goes the more filters into your
night everyday lives people who want a
passport or visa may not be able to get
one in time anything that relies on
money from the federal government is
kind of stuck in the mud right now and
has been the whole thing is just a
disaster for the economy and it also
doesn't help the US on a global stage
right appear like we have our act
together if we can't keep our own
government open what usually happens is
Congress comes right up to the deadline
and then passes a short term spending
bill that just funds the government at
last year's levels for a couple more
months while they buy themselves more
negotiating time basically this is not
the way the government was set up to run
kicking the can down the road every
couple months