With a total of 22 days, the current partial closure of the Administration today beat the record as the longest in the United States since a budget reform in 1976 allowed this measure, unprecedented among modern democracies.
The present government closure exceeded today the record that until now had the longest life: the one that occurred during 1995-1996 under Bill Clinton (1993-2001) due to a budget dispute in health, education and environment issues.
And in this case, there is still no indication that Trump and the Democratic opposition can reach an agreement that will end it.
In the US, the administrative closure requires the suspension of the provision of certain public services when the two chambers of Congress or the president of the country do not reach an agreement to sign certain budget allocations.
Faced with this situation, the departments whose budget depends on the new agreement interrupt most of their activity and even stop paying their employees salaries.
Currently, Trump and the Democratic opposition in Congress maintain a pulse for a very specific budget allocation: the 5.7 billion dollars that the president asks Congress to build his promised wall on the border with Mexico.
This barrier was one of the main electoral promises of Trump, who after two years of mandate proposed to start its construction and affirmed that “he would be willing to close the Government” if he did not receive the money he requests.
Since December 22, a part of the Administration of the country remains closed while Trump and the two Democratic Congress leaders, Nancy Pelosi and Charles Schumer, have staged three weeks of constant accusations until reaching the longest close in history.
For Trump, the wall is necessary because it solves a “growing immigration emergency” on the southern border, according to a warning on Tuesday in a speech to the country that was broadcast by all television during prime time, the first one he gave from the Oval Office. .
For the opposition the wall is “immoral”, contrary to “US values” and an ineffective expense to improve the control of clandestine immigration and border security, according to their leaders argued in a televised counter-speech that accumulated more audience than Trump’s.
Thus, during these 22 days, 25% of the Administration has remained suspended, a situation that affects some 800,000 workers who have stopped collecting and who has forced to hang the closed sign in tourist destinations such as museums, national parks and monuments .
The confrontation maintained by the political leaders of Washington has meant, in addition, an economic loss of 3,600 million dollars, according to the agency S & P Global Ratings.
If the closure is prolonged another two weeks would cost 6,000 million, according to the same entity, that is, it could end up being more expensive than the money that Trump asks for his wall.
Some investigations, such as the one published by The Washington Post, consider, however, that the final cost of the border barrier would exceed 25,000 million and would require 10 years of work.
This scenario of interruption in the activity of public administration is practically impossible in other democracies, where measures are contemplated such as prolonging the budget of the previous cycle and in which a closure of the government would be synonymous with a revolution, invasion or disaster.
But a reform of the US law began in 1976 the possibility of this measure being taken and put into practice for the first time in 1980, under the Government of Jimmy Carter (1977-1981).
Since then there have been 20 administrative interruptions, although officials were not suspended on all occasions.
Ronald Reagan (1981-1989) is the president who lived more closures of this type, with a total of three, but barely exceeded a couple of days; the second in the list is Bill Clinton, with two dismissals of 7 and 21 days, the period that until today was the longest.
Now, Trump surpassed Clinton with the most prolonged closure and equaled Clinton in quantity, since it accumulates two administrative closures: the current one and another three days in 2018.
Previously, Barack Obama (2009-2017) experienced a single similar closure during his dual term of 16 days. (EFEUSA) .-
