Just in time for Christmas, a shutdown over a wall Mexico was supposed to pay for: Readers sound off

USA TODAY
Going into a second day, shutdown is affecting about 800,000 government employees through furloughs, smaller paychecks

Letters edited for clarity and grammar

A government shutdown forces everyday people to struggle.

I am a law enforcement officer at a federal prison in Florida, and I put my life on the line daily to protect my community in an environment where correctional officers are heavily outnumbered.

Prisons are already severely understaffed. Officers across the country are being assaulted while being mandated to 16-hour shifts, more than 70 hours a week. The shutdown forces us to cancel all leave and come to work without pay or face disciplinary action. This is likened to “involuntary servitude.” Shutting down the government does a disservice to millions of Americans and communities around the nation.

Many employees barely make ends meet. Now, before the holidays, we come to work to face furloughs or not knowing whether or when we will get paid because officials in Washington want to play politics.

Ray Coleman; Tallahassee, Fla.

President Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress blew holes in a bipartisan effort to fund the government until February that would have avoided a partial government shutdown!

Trump made a promise to his Republican, anti-immigrationists that he would build a "big beautiful wall," and is shutting down the government because he didn't get his way. Let's hope Trump's wrangling doesn't affect too many of his loyal Republican supporters' holiday plans.

Ron Lowe; Nevada City, Calif.

So I woke up this morning to read that the government is in a shutdown.

And then I remembered that the Democrats are blaming Trump for it because they thought he was going to cave, even after the White House meeting that we all saw.

So with the government shutdown, we see who is for upholding his oath of office to protect and defend this country, and who isn't.

Democrats all of a sudden care about an expenditure that is less than 1 percent of the budget.

Barry Levy; Hawthorne, Calif.

Republicans will no doubt defend to the end Trump's government shutdown. Trump stated he would accept full blame for the shutdown on national television (while acting like a child).

Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Chuck Schumer were forced to watch Trump's border wall temper tantrum, unable to do anything but shake their heads in disbelief as Trump raged about funding the wall. The fact is this Christmas, 800,000 government employees are going on furlough or work without pay.

Trump criticized former President Barack Obama back in 2013 during a different shutdown. That was to save the Affordable Care Act. Trump's shutdown is all about him and the wall Mexico was going to pay for.

But really, why is anyone surprised that Trump is willing to shut down our government when it's clearly not the one he works for?

Robert LaRosa; Whitestone, N.Y.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Just in time for Christmas, a shutdown over a wall Mexico was supposed to pay for: Readers sound off