CEO of ADL: Seeing a 'blitzkrieg of anti-Jewish' acts across US Dana Bash: This is so telling about where the Republican party is NEW YORK, NY - AUGUST 24: Trump Tower stands on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan on August 24, 2018 in New York City. Following new allegations over hush money that former Trump attorney Michael Cohen paid to an adult-film actress, the Manhattan district attorneyÕs office in New York City may seek criminal charges against the Trump Organization in the coming days. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images) Why GOP is standing in the way of Capitol riot investigation WASHINGTON - NOVEMBER 08: US Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner (R-VA) remarks on the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld at the US Capitol November 8, 2006 in Washington, DC. Warner said he supports President George W. Bush's nomination of former CIA Director Robert Gates for Secretary of Defense. Warner said he anticipates Gates' confirmation before the end of the year. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), joined by Senate Assistant Minority Leader John Thune (R-SD) (L) and Senate Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-MO), speaks following a Senate Republican Policy luncheon at the Russell Senate Office Building on May 18, 2021 in Washington, DC. Hear what Matt Gaetz said about Paul Ryan before his speech Former GOP senator: If McConnell said this, 'it's shameful' 'Some people have no shame': Biden calls out GOP lawmakers with list OGDEN, UT - JANUARY 10: A demonstrator holds a sign protesting the government shutdown at the James V. Hansen Federal Building on January 10, 2019 in Ogden, Utah. As the shutdown nears the three week mark, many federal employees will not receive a paycheck tomorrow. (CNN) — The government is finally open – at least for now. As the shutdown drags on, more federal employees are being called back to work – without pay, at least for the foreseeable future – to keep key things running smoothly. Even so, plenty of operations are affected, and keeping track can be tough. So, what happens next? We’ve got some answers. How long is the government opening for? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Your guess is as good as ours. Your guess is as good as ours. President Donald Trump and lawmakers are still locked in a standoff over Trump’s demand that Congress allocate $5.7 billion to build a wall at the US-Mexico border. Trump has said he’s considering declaring a national emergency to get the money but he’d prefer to strike a deal with Congress. Saturday, the President proposed extending protections for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients and individuals with Temporary Protected Status in exchange for wall funding. Trump’s latest proposal is unlikely to change anything. Pelosi and other Democrats rejected the offer, maintaining the President must open the government before negotiations begin. Should I be worried about my health? The US Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday resumed some food safety inspections that had been halted since the shutdown began. But even with inspectors back at work – without pay – some experts still have safety concerns and recommend avoiding certain foods. Is it safe to travel? Yes. While agencies like the Transportation Security Administration and the Federal Aviation Administration are understaffed because of the shutdown, experts say there’s no reason to believe safety is compromised. Security at airport checkpoints across the country is just as effective as ever, and average wait times are within TSA standards, an agency spokesman said. But as the shutdown drags on, passengers could experience longer security lines or flight delays, and workers could quit over greater workloads and no pay. Meantime, investigations into significant vehicle, plane and rail incidents are on hold as National Transportation Safety Board workers also are furloughed. Is the military affected? Most of the military isn’t affected because a bill funding the Defense Department passed in September. However, the US Coast Guard falls under the Department of Homeland Security, and thousands of active duty service members who had been working through the shutdown went without a paycheck on Tuesday. It was the first time members of the Armed Forces weren’t paid during a shutdown, the Coast Guard’s top official said. The Department of Veterans Affairs is fully funded for the 2019 fiscal year, and all operations will continue as normal during the shutdown. Are US diplomatic outposts safe? Yes. The State Department ordered employees to return to work this week, saying it needs US embassies, consulates and domestic offices fully staffed to ensure national security. The department said it would find money to pay workers for a time despite the shutdown. Staffers had been furloughed because officials thought the shutdown would end sooner, they said. And though operations will now continue, bureaus and posts are expected to stick to a tight budget for spending on contracts, travel and other needs. What about weather forecasting? The longer the shutdown continues, the more vulnerable the country is to the next hurricane season and other extreme weather. Hurricane season doesn’t start until June, but forecasters and researchers use the off-season to refine and improve storm-predicting models, methods and techniques. Now, much of that research is in jeopardy. Will I get my mail? Yes. The Postal Service doesn’t use federal appropriations for operations, relying instead on sales of postage, products and services. Will I get my tax refund? Yes. The Trump administration confirmed that this week. It’s a departure from the Internal Revenue Service’s policy not to pay tax refunds while the government is closed. Will I get my food stamps? Food stamps are funded through February. The Department of Agriculture says it’s working with states to issue February benefits earlier than usual, by January 20. The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, known as WIC, is also funded through February. Child nutrition programs, including school breakfasts, lunches and after-school meals, are funded through March. Is Social Security affected? No, Social Security services aren’t affected, and benefits will continue to arrive on time. How are Native American tribes affected? Tribes that rely on federal funds for services, such as health clinics and food pantries, are affected.<doc-sep>The government shutdown, now in its fourth miserable week, shows few signs of ending. Donald Trump, obsessed with curtailing immigration at all costs, wants money for a border wall House Democrats won’t give to him. Mitch McConnell, the Republican Senate majority leader, has been content to do Trump’s bidding, twice blocking Democratic bills to reopen the government. This is now the longest shutdown ever and it’s striking how little Trump and the Republican Senate majority care. McConnell has turned into a political phantom. Trump gloats about ordering fast food for football players because the cooks in the White House have been furloughed. It’s easy to see the shutdown as another symptom of Trump’s instability and hatred of Mexican immigrants – and it is. The lack of alarm from his Republican peers is, just as importantly, revelatory of another disturbing truth: the rightwing, anti-government forces which first took root in the GOP more than 40 years ago are now in full bloom and Trump is their willing avatar. Republican party leaders have long talked about slashing the size of government, reducing the social safety net, and privatizing whatever they can. Paul Ryan, the former House speaker, called social security a “Ponzi scheme”. It has long been the dream of movement conservatives to bring to the knees a federal government that grew dramatically in scope under the Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal and Lyndon B Johnson’s anti-poverty programs. About 800,000 federal workers are currently furloughed. Many of them have the kind of job protections and benefits rightwing intellectuals have long demonized. For many people of color, a government job has been the path to a middle-class existence, with healthcare, a pension and paid time off. It was Ronald Reagan’s administration that once spoke of “starving the beast” of the federal government to achieve his desired policy outcomes. The idea was simple: deprive the government of tax revenue, reduce its ability to function, and cut spending on as many programs as possible. Nothing domestically should be spared: Medicare, Medicaid, social security, housing programs and welfare. While Trump appears incapable of reading a book, he has absorbed – through osmosis, as well as through cabinet members such as the vice-president, Mike Pence, and acting the chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, – the philosophies of hardline conservative economists, especially Milton Friedman, Friedrich von Hayek and James Buchanan. All three men were the godfathers of modern conservatism, which sought to purge the remnants of the Republican party’s liberalism and its taste for a certain element of noblesse oblige. The growing federal government, with its programs for the poor and its ossifying bureaucracy, was the true enemy of liberty in their eyes, and a total war must be waged against it. Trump’s declaration in early January that he could keep the government shutdown going “months or even years” was taken as a sign, in most circles, of his usual recklessness and his commitment to a farcical border wall. It should also be viewed through another lens: a Republican leader telling the American people the shutdown just doesn’t mean very much to him. One could imagine a President Ted Cruz saying something similar. The Texas senator was the architect of the last shutdown in 2013, willing to temporarily kneecap the federal government over his hatred of the Affordable Care Act. Cruz and Trump share an equal disdain for a healthcare law that is market-based and anything but socialism. It was their willingness to shred it at all costs that was another reminder of how extreme Republican party leaders have become. If you believe an expansive federal government is ultimately illegitimate and an impingement on liberty, what difference does a shutdown make? Though it’s unlikely the shutdown will last as long as Trump said it could, what if federal workers, tired of being at home without a paycheck or working without getting paid, simply walked away and hunted for other jobs? Reagan infamously fired striking air traffic controllers, presaging the long, successful war against once powerful labor unions. In the fantasies of the most fevered rightwing thinkers, Trump could have his own Reagan moment. Conservative columnists are already arguing that “the temporary shutdown of parts of the federal government is a good argument for the permanent shutdown of parts of the federal government”, in the words of the National Review’s Kevin Williamson. Remember: the conservatives in Trump’s corner have no incentive for government to work well. Ineffective, pared down bureaucracy is merely a further argument for its inability to help people, and the vicious cycle spins on. Starve it so it can’t be of use to anyone. And then hope Americans lose any loyalty to the services it provided. This chilling vision still may not come to pass. Anti-government fervor is not a mainstream position. Even Republican voters like getting their social security checks and Medicare. Universal healthcare polls well. This has always been a source of frustration for the most committed fundamentalists of an unfettered free market. Beyond unrestrained capitalism and business owners being left to their own devices, they can’t really offer much else. Most Americans implicitly understand “freedom” doesn’t mean the reduction of healthcare coverage, poorly funded schools or the end of protections for consumers. It will be up to the next Democratic president to undo the damage Trump has done. Until then, we can only hope somehow, someway, Trump and his allies decide it’s not fun any more to lock hundreds of thousands of people out of work.<doc-sep>“It’s very hard. It’s hard to go in there and do my job 100 percent like I’m supposed to, knowing that I’m not going to get paid.” “Having to go back to work is going to be an expense that I simply can’t afford. It’s going to require, you know, getting gas for my car to go to work. I can’t afford that right now.” “I’ve got to try to keep the lights on or keep the water on and I got to keep my phone on and I don’t know how I’m going to be able to do all of that.” “Like, It’s not our fault. We’ve done our job up to this point. You know, we were working overtime before all this, to be able to meet the taxpayers’ needs.” “I’m under the impression that we are not eligible for unemployment because we are still working. And my employees, many of them are struggling to have money for fuel to come to work.” “You know, I just bought a house. Nov. 13, 2018, and five weeks later, we have a shutdown. So, you know, I was able to make my first payment. We didn’t ask for any of this. We didn’t want to be — we just wanted to go to work and do our job. Period.” “Well, there’s all of this coverage about people in the D.C. area who are getting free lunches and going to food banks and that there is some level of community support there. But out here in, you know, sort of Middle America, out here in Mississippi, we don’t have that network.” “I think to secure the border is important. I guess I can understand where the president’s coming from. But at the expense of 800,000 people’s livelihood? I don’t.” “I think a lot of people just don’t realize that the food that’s on their table, you know, for the most part is inspected by one or another governmental regulatory agency. And so this really is having an impact on everyone’s life, just not on these 800,000 federal employees.” “Get us back to work. Get us our paycheck, and you guys continue your issues. You know, it shouldn’t affect the smaller people in this.”<doc-sep>The federal government’s partial shutdown is now the longest in history, with President Donald Trump refusing to sign a spending deal that reopens the government as long as it doesn’t include $5 billion for his wall at the US-Mexico border. As the shutdown continues and as tax filing season nears, many people may wonder: How is the government shutdown affecting tax returns and refunds? The short answer: Despite previous concerns, the Trump administration is trying to ensure tax returns and refunds aren’t noticeably affected by the shutdown — calling back IRS employees to make sure all the paperwork and filings are processed. So once tax filing season starts on January 28, taxpayers should expect to get their money back on time, according to the IRS’s contingency plan. But there’s some uncertainty, especially as the shutdown drags on. To get tax refunds processed, the IRS is forcing employees to work without pay, with the promise of back pay once the government reopens. It’s unclear, though, if the IRS is calling back enough employees to do this work as quickly as it’s historically been done, and whether IRS employees will really tolerate working without pay for long. If workers stop showing up, that could mean delays, or worse, for tax refunds. Join the Vox Video Lab Go behind the scenes. Chat with creators. Support Vox video. Become a member of the Vox Video Lab on YouTube today. (Heads up: You might be asked to sign in to Google first.) The longer answer: As part of the government shutdown, the IRS has retained more than 46,000 workers, or 57.4 percent of the IRS workforce. The majority of those employees are working without pay, though they’ll get back pay once the government reopens. The staffing will let the IRS continue some operations for now, particularly functions that are automatic (and require limited to no workers) and those deemed “necessary for the safety of human life or protection of government property.” Some examples: processing electronic returns, processing returns with payments, mailing tax forms, appeals, criminal law enforcement and investigations, and technical work to make sure computer systems remain up and running. In the past, these activities didn’t include processing tax refunds. But the IRS is calling back tens of thousands of employees to handle tax refunds, citing a 2011 memo to argue that it’s allowed to do so. So taxpayers will be able to mail in tax returns or submit them online, and get their refunds, even if the shutdown continues on. One major caveat to all this: It’s unclear how long IRS employees will tolerate working without pay. Already, some federal employees have sued the Trump administration over uncompensated labor. If employees eventually get fed up — and perhaps go on strike, or stop showing up to work for other reasons — that could delay tax refunds no matter what the IRS does. Another concern is whether the IRS is calling back enough workers to process tax refunds as quickly as it has in the past. If not, there could be delays in refunds, even if they get out eventually. Meanwhile, the IRS has stopped several other functions: audits, return examinations, non-automated collections, and legal counsel, among other operations. (For a full list, read the IRS’s contingency plan.) Depending on how long the shutdown lasts, the IRS may opt to restart some of these functions no matter what — but the employees carrying out this work may not be paid for it until Trump and Congress agree to a spending deal. One other area in which the IRS may have problems is the continuing implementation of the 2017 tax law passed by Republicans in Congress and signed by Trump. As the IRS’s contingency plan noted, the law’s implementation “requires creating or revising hundreds of tax products including worksheets and tax forms, form instructions and publications as well as changes to current IRS policies and procedures.” That work is likely to be stalled by a shutdown. At least for now, though, taxpayers can expect to be able to file their returns and get their refunds.<doc-sep>
WASHINGTON – Tuesday marks one month date since the partial government shutdown began and each day that goes by the strain on the country increases, especially for the 800,000 federal employees who will miss their second paycheck this week. To help pay the bills, some have resorted to part-time jobs or soliciting donations through crowdsourcing websites. At airports across the country, passengers are facing sporadic crowding that could grow worse this week with the announcement Monday by the TSA that sickouts by security screeners had reached 10 percent, compared to 3.1 percent at the same time in 2018. The agency acknowledged that “many employees are reporting that they are not able to report to work due to financial limitations.” In addition, some national parks and monuments are either closed or in bad shape because the trash isn't being picked up and bathrooms not cleaned. President Donald Trump's own economists said last week that the impact of the shutdown on economic growth is twice as bad as originally projected. The Council of Economic Advisers now say that each week of the shutdown shaves 0.13 percentage points off of economic growth, mostly from the lost spending and investment by those federal employees not being paid. Fairly soon, that could stall economic growth and begin a contraction. Despite this grim outlook, many Americans have yet to feel much impact from the shutdown in part because the Trump administration has selectively recalled workers in various agencies to make sure that critical services continue. Those efforts provide a pressure valve that may be relieving some public anger. But the political tension surrounding the shutdown has increased and turned it into a personal duel between Trump and Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. This week the GOP-controlled Senate is expected to take up legislation that contains the proposal offered by Trump on Friday, which was quickly rejected by Democrats. It includes $5.7 billion for the wall along the southern border but also $12.7 billion in disaster funding and temporary protection for people brought into the country illegally by their parents, known as Dreamers. The Democratic-controlled House, meanwhile, is expected to take its own legislation to reopen government. Elaine Kamarck, with the Brookings Institution, said the moves by the Trump administration are a sign they are planning for the shutdown to continue for a long time. "They clearly want their cake and eat it too," said Kamarck, director of the Center for Effective Public Management at the institution who is also a member of the Democratic National Committee. "They want to play the shutdown game but they want to have the government operating." Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, said efforts to mute the impact of the shutdown mask its broader meaning. "This is far more about the crisis of governance that we are in the midst of," MacGuineas said. "Our government is crumbling. The ability of our leaders to lead the country during a really important time is called into question." She acknowledges that the shutdown is causing suffering, especially for federal employees. "But many of the points made to illustrate the impact of a federal shutdown are quite easily dismissed. If the worst thing we have is overflowing toilets in national parks, it’s not exactly a national crisis." Who's most affected Besides federal employees, those facing the greatest hardship – now and in the future – are those in need. Every week hundreds of contracts between the Department of Housing and Urban Development and landlords renting to low-income families expire, leaving thousands in limbo. The landlords are left to either subsidize the rent with the hopes of being reimbursed when the shutdown ends or evicting people who may have nowhere else to live. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, otherwise known as food stamps, has sent out its February payment early to the more than 40 million recipients nationwide asking that they not spend the money all at once because it may be the last they receive until the shutdown ends. Women, Infants, and Children benefits also are set to expire next month although some states say they can stretch theirs for another month or two. Immigrants trying to renew a work permit or a driver's license or seek asylum face longer delays because already 63,000 hearings have been canceled because of the shutdown and the backlog in immigration courts has grown to 800,000 cases.