August 24, 2017 10:57 AM UTC

So You Want To Shut Down The Government Again, Do You?

• 8 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE: As Chris Cillizza reports for CNN, Congressional Republicans know that a government shutdown would be politically devastating for them — but they might not be able to stop it:

The problem is obvious. If Trump goes hard on his demand for border wall funding — White House types insist he is very serious about doing so, but he is also incredibly mercurial and changeable — he would likely have the House Freedom Caucus and a decent-sized chunk of conservative senators on his side. Which would mean that Ryan and McConnell would have to pass a government funding bill with lots of Democratic votes. And that Trump could veto whatever they passed and — wait for it — that they almost certainly wouldn’t have the votes to overturn that veto.

If you’re saying to yourself, “Trump would never do that to his own party,” stop and look back at the last two years. And if you are a Republican, get ready — because the next month is going to be a very bumpy ride.

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Denver7’s Marc Stewart tallies the potential damage in the event that President Donald Trump’s threats to precipitate a shutdown of the federal government to force Congress to approve funds for a wall on the nation’s southern border come true:

Data from the Colorado Department of Labor shows roughly 40,000 federal workers in the state could be eligible to file for unemployment.

Such a move could touch everyday life in Colorado…

Rocky Mountain National Park could also be stung in a shutdown.

The natural treasure was closed for more than a week in 2013. It was reopened using money from the state.

“The notion of shutting down the federal government when policy decisions don’t go one’s way is inconceivable. We will be prepared should there be any kind of temporary shutdown that harms Colorado citizens or impacts critical services,” said Colorado governor John Hickenlooper.

The 2013 federal government shutdown could have been far worse for Colorado, coming on the heels of devastating flooding in the state that necessitated federal help–and also further reduced tourism to the state even beyond the cancelled bookings from shutting the state’s national parks and monuments. The state’s extraordinary action to fund Rocky Mountain National Park’s operations during the shutdown was a lifeline to tourism-dependent towns like Estes Park, but the added stress from the avoidable crisis of the shutdown in an already difficult period left bitter memories.

And that’s the just harm most immediately visible to the outside world. The disruption to federal facilities and the lives of federal employees across the state, with their own rippling economic effects, all take their toll.

Who’s ready to shut it down again over Trump’s border wall? We don’t see this going over well in Estes Park.