The United States federal government was shut down for over a month and only reopened recently. The current President of the U.S, Donald John Trump is demanding that Congress gives him over five billion dollars to build a wall along the border of Mexico. However, the Democratic party is not letting him get the money. And for good reason too.

The United States is already trillions of dollars in debt and those five billion could be used for much better things. It could even be used to support the border patrol. Instead of building a wall they could buy drones and better equipment for the border.

However, because Trump isn’t getting what he wants he is throwing a Presidential size tantrum and has shut down the government. Neither side has been giving any leeway and so the shutdown has continued.

This was the longest government shutdown in U.S history. It caused over 800,000 federal employees to either work without pay or to just not work at all. These employees have already lost two of their paydays and there are money problems in other places as well, according to the article “Trump, Democrats Stand Firm on Opposite Sides of Border Wall,” federal courts could run out of money by Friday.

Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi have been opposing Trump at every turn. According to CNN Editor Chris Cillizza, Pelosi has just recently rescinded her letter inviting Trump to hold the State of the Union Address on the house floor. In doing so Pelosi is breaking a long-standing tradition in the U.S, “A tradition that has been around since George Washington delivered the first State of the Union address at Federal Hall in New York City on January 8, 1790”.