For a long time, the democrats and the republicans have debated over the wall at the border of Mexico. The Washington Post surveyed who supports or disapproves of the wall. Four out of ten people supported it. So it is clear that the country is not completely split in half as many people would think.

On December 22nd, 2018 the U.S. government officially was shut down. This was the second shutdown in Donald Trump’s Presidency. The shutdown occurred because the U.S. government was debating a spending bill- called an appropriations bill in US political parlance-, but that did not happen. The government closed many operations. The operations spanned  from TSA workers at airports to Homeland Security agencies being closed. This is not the first time a shutdown has occurred, but the concerning part was that it was the longest in U.S. history.

Trump, in a later meeting with the speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senator Chuck Schumer, asked them “will you support my wall” and they refused. Trump walked right out of the meeting. Democrats say they will not agree on the wall or to tighten border security. It gives you a little insight into how bad it is down there in Washington.

I interviewed Mr. Krieger-teacher at Ipswich high school- for his take on this whole big shutdown. He teaches American Government, Criminology, and Criminal Justice mostly. So it was a clear choice to interview him. Although he was unwilling to share his personal beliefs about the wall, he did say that the shut down happened because the politicians were unwilling to compromise. He also said that he was concerned about the close-up trip to D.C..

I then interviewed classmate Erik Anderson. He is a senior at Ipswich High School. I asked Erik the same questions as Mr. Krieger, and the responses were mostly the same, but a few were different. Erik also thinks there is going to be a shutdown in the future. He believes that the government can’t agree on things because their ideological thinking separates both the democrats and republicans and each move they make is a reaction to the other side, and each wants majority control. Lastly, about the wall question, Erik said he “completely approves” of it. Now, why should anybody care about this? If you’re not getting a passport, then it’s probably not going to affect you that much. If you happen to fall in the group of 800,000 government employees who are aren’t “essential”, then you will be forced to work without pay until the conflict is resolved. Small business owners, home buyers, food inspections, and public housing could be affected as well. However, flights, Amtrak, Medicare, Smithsonian museums, zoos, social security checks, as well as the border will continue to be operational during the shutdown.

This shutdown would cost the U.S. 11 billion dollars and 3 billion of which, is gone forever. The more time the U.S. government disagrees on issues, the worst the problems get. The more united we stand on things, the more we accomplish — also, the higher the chance to agree on more things.