As the dust settles from the last long government shutdown, it’s time to reflect on some fundamental truths about our political system.

First, during the last shutdown, the government forced 420,000 of its own employees to work without pay indefinitely, while another 380,000 were furloughed. A government that cares so little about the economic security of its own employees obviously cares even less about people experiencing poverty in the wider public.

Second, all this happened as a result of the president’s demonstrably false claims of a “crisis” of migration — and his demands to further militarize an already militarized border with a neighboring country that, the last time I checked, we aren’t at war with.

Read the full article at Truthout.

Basav Sen directs the Climate Policy Project at the Institute for Policy Studies.

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