We are for less government – not no government.  I was once on television absurdly accused of wanting the US to be like Wild West-esque Somalia.

Not at all.  The federal government is this year spending a grotesquely obscene $4.4 trillion.  I’d like us to be somewhere between a grotesquely obscene $4.4 trillion – and Somalia.  Admittedly, closer to Somalia than our grotesquely obscene $4.4 trillion.  But in the general middle.

I do enjoy a government shutdown for certain specific reasons.

It helps less government efforts to highlight the fact the federal government now employs ~850,000 people – the federal government its own self deems non-essential, and thus furloughs every shutdown.  I’ve my entire life asked private businesses how many non-essential personnel each employs.  The cumulative lifetime grand total – is zero.

It helps less government efforts to be in the midst of a government shutdown – this one is now the all-time longest – and have average Americans realize how little they notice. Perhaps the realization that government is most of the time either irrelevant or outright harmful to to their lives – will sink in with more people.

This shutdown is caused by Democrats refusing to approve $5.7 billion for a very necessary southern border barrier.  A tiny fraction of the amounts of money Democrats have previously approved for a southern border barrier.  An infinitesimal fraction (0.14%) of the federal government’s grotesquely obscene $4.4 trillion annual budget.

Get over yourselves, Democrats.  End your shutdown.  Fund the frigging barrier.

The federal government does do a few helpful things.  The Donald Trump Administration is doing more helpful things – than any administration in at least a century.  Those things are certainly missed during this – the all-time longest shutdown.

To wit: Trump’s revolutionary improvements of our global trade deals.

The 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) – was awful for America and Americans.  Trump has negotiated a VASTLY improved United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).  Which now founders and flounders on the shoals of the shutdown.

Shutdown Could Impact ITC’s Work on USMCA Report:

“Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) legislation states that ITC studies on the likely economic impacts of free trade agreements are to be submitted to Congress 105 days after the U.S. enters into a trade agreement. Representatives of USMCA member countries signed the pact on Nov. 30, giving the commission until March 15 to submit the report….”

Trump got European Union (EU) President Jean-Claude Juncker to agree “to work together towards zero tariffs, zero non-tariff barriers, and zero subsidies on non-auto industrial goods.”

That is inconceivably massive movement by the EU – and an inconceivably massive improvement upon the status quo.

Trump can’t maximize and execute the EU trade advantages he’s created – due to the effects of the shutdown.

US Shutdown Puts Free Trade Talks with EU in Impasse

Trump’s unrelenting pressure on trade uber-cheat China – is really starting to bear real fruit.

China’s Economy Grew (at)…the Lowest Pace in 28 Years

Which means the pump is primed – for the US to cut much better deals with China.

China’s Slowing Growth Improves the Chances for an ‘Advantageous’ Trade Deal:

“China’s slowing economic growth could pave the way for its government to reach a trade agreement with the United States, CNBC’s Jim Cramer said.

“‘I figure the weakness in China will make it easier for President [Donald] Trump to get an advantageous trade deal,’ Cramer…told investors.”

It certainly seems China is looking to make nice.

China’s $1 Trillion Trade Offer Could Be A Game Changer

Trump can’t maximize and execute the China trade advantages he’s created – due to the effects of the shutdown.

How the Government Shutdown Is Preventing a Potential US-China Trade Deal

As much as I enjoy a shutdown highlighting government’s massive personnel and other budgetary wastes.

As much as I enjoy a shutdown highlighting government’s inconsequential-if-not-harmful role in the lives of average Americans.

As much as I enjoy the vastly improved DC traffic (as I have today to head into the belly of The Beast).

I’d like the Democrats to grow up.  And fund a southern border barrier – at a tiny fraction of the southern border barrier amounts to which they have repeatedly previously agreed.

Oh – and as Fox News’ Tucker Carlson last night noted:

What Trump wants for a southern border barrier – is less than the $7 billion in free money the federal government just hands Ivy League schools…each and every year.

This is not research grants.  This is not tuition assistance.  This is just “Here you go” money.

For colleges, by the way, that aren’t education facilities – they are pro-socialism, anti-America indoctrination centers.  Conservative vanguard William Buckley wrote about how awful the Yale he attended was – in the early 1950s.  And that was before the Hippie Generation took over the campuses, then the schools – and now the nation.

The federal government has handed the Ivies hundreds of billions of our dollars.  High school graduate plumbers, electricians and auto mechanics are paying way-too-high taxes – and having their money handed to Harvard and Yale and Princeton.

It’s DC Leftists – many of whom attended Ivy League schools – funding Ivy League Leftists.  Lather, rinse, repeat.

Oh: And I just did the Ivy League endowment math.  Endowments are the heaps and piles of cash – accruing the magic of compound interest – upon which the Ivies sit.  The combined endowment tally of the Ivies – is at least $124.1 billion.

Of which the Ivies are required to spend each year – zero dollars.  They can continue to sit on their heaps and piles of cash – while the magic of compound interest continues to do its thing.

The Ivies certainly don’t spend any of their massive endowments on tuition reductions.  The average 2019 Ivy tuition – will be $54,278.

And the federal government gifted these schools $7 billion last year.  And will gift them $7 billion this year.  And will gift them (at least) $7 billion next year.

But DC Democrats won’t approve $5.7 billion for a southern border barrier Trump wants – and Reality mandates.

Which is holding up some really great trade deals Trump is making.  Trade deals that are exponentially better for the jobs and wages of America’s plumbers, electricians and auto mechanics.

Get over yourselves, Democrats.  End your shutdown.  Fund the frigging barrier.

Our national security – and our much better trade deals – will thank you.