Who Needs A Government Anyway?

I fully expect that by the time this posts on Wednesday, the United States government will still be shut down.  

I used this graphic for a blog post about a previous government shut down from October 2, 2013.

What gives with this particular government closure is that Democrats in the Senate will not provide the votes to approve the Republican's budget without a continuation of tax credits for citizens who get their health insurance through the Affordable Care Act (ACA or also known as Obamacare).

Without those tax credits, premiums will increase by a prohibitively high amount.  

Republicans have railed against the ACA for years and might well just say let the premium increases hit and kill the ACA once and for all.

Except...

A lot of poor people who rely on ACA to get health insurance come from  Southern rural districts that vote Republican.

The ACA is actually popular with Republican constituents.

Some Republicans claim to be ready to work with Democrats to extend ACA tax credits IF they vote to reopen the government first. 

Democrats are naturally wary of taking that bet.

These are the same Republicans who get in front of microphones to accuse the Democrats of shutting down the government to get health care for illegal aliens.  (They're using the word "aliens" now instead of "immigrants".)  

This is a lie.

People who are NOT citizens and do NOT have legal status can't get diddly squat in benefits through ACA. 

And there is also the matter of the idiot in the White House. 

Donald Trump has always been an opponent of the ACA mostly because it was something Barak Obama did and Trump is automatically antiethical to anything Obama accomplished.  

Trump's constant characterization of Democrats as the enemy of America and how much they HATE America doesn't exactly bode well for any kind of negotiated resolution to this problem.

For Li'l Donnie, a shut down government is not a bug but a feature.  A federal government in shut down is an engine of chaos and chaos is Trump's favorite commodity. 

I'm writing this post two days before it posts.

I have no reason to think that by Wednesday, I will need to change anything I've written.

I have no reason to expect the total erosion of trust in Washington will be restored.