Who won the shutdown in the US?

After 43 days, the American shutdown ended, here the funding outage. Who won? Temporarily, perhaps, Trump, certainly not the image of the country in the world.

The longest shutdown in US history ended with a decisive vote by the House of Representatives on Thursday night. The bill to further fund the federal government, which means the end of paralysis of government offices, had already passed in the Senate, when a minority of Democrats joined the Republicans. The Republicans did not have to give in to the demand of the majority of Democrats, who made the approval of the budget conditional on the extension of tax credits for health insurance. President Donald Trump then signed the bill, which went into effect.

People in the US breathed a sigh of relief. However, the First Power offered the world a very unflattering picture of its (non)functioning. 670,000 federal employees were on furlough and 730,000 were not paid. There have been cuts in food aid for millions of poor Americans and air travel due to the cancellation of thousands of flights. The White House Council of Economic Advisers estimated that the shutdown cost the U.S. economy $15 billion a week, which comes at a time when the U.S. has to face many domestic and foreign policy problems.

It was completely bizarre when the US military advised soldiers stationed in Germany who were not receiving a salary to turn to German food banks. However, the supply of military equipment to Ukraine has also been affected, as the US has apparently stopped the sale of weapons to NATO member states in Europe worth at least five billion dollars (105 billion crowns).

The end of the shutdown was decided in the Senate by eight Democratic senators who supported the Republicans. In the Democratic Party, a split has once again emerged between the party's activist and left-wing base, which wanted to use the shutdown negotiations to make it more difficult for Republicans to govern with Trump at the helm, and its centrist establishment.

A well-known left-wing senator from Vermont, Bernie Sanders, called the deal a disaster, and California Governor Gawin Newsom, who is speculated to be the Democratic nominee in the next presidential election, described the actions of the "defectors" as pathetic. Many democrats on the left feel that an "opportunity has been missed." They are also worried about where the party will go next and how it will stand up to Republicans and Trump in the future. They also point out the contrast between the concession to the Republicans and the electoral victories of the Democrats in the elections for governors in Virginia and New Jersey and the mayor in New York.

Trump can be satisfied. He did not give in to the Democrats, he did not offer any great compromise. And he was obviously sure that his tactics would work. Despite domestic problems, he even made two major international trips to the Middle East and East Asia during the shutdown. And it can be considered a slight provocation that he organized an opulent fundraising party in the style of "The Great Gatsby" at the time of the shutdown.

But the "winning picture" is somewhat spoiled by the fact that the end of the shutdown allows for funding for some government agencies and programs only until the end of January next year, long enough for Americans to survive the Christmas holiday period and the weeks after. After that, Congress can be where it was at the end of September. Political uncertainty still remains.

Miloš Balabán, Právo Daily