The partial government shutdown is behind us — for now. Members of Congress, under intense pressure, will be expected to craft a compromise that has eluded others for months. There will likely be little, if any, opportunity to draw testimony from real experts on security. And if any solution is actually cobbled together and is acceptable to President Donald Trump, it may have unintended and injurious consequences not foreseen in this rush.

In the meantime, Trump boasts that he is ready to declare an emergency or again shut down part of the government, cutting off pay to 800,000 federal employees plus the 1.2 million contract workers who will again be hostages to Trump’s delusions.

Trump is threatening to take these injurious and dictatorial actions in order to fulfill his nonsensical campaign promise to build a wall (which Mexico would pay for) to please and placate his diminishing base.

In this bizarre Trump era, we are sadly witnessing a new form of governance — government by threat, edict and extortion.

John Witeck

Kamehameha Heights

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