the fact is on the very first day of this congress, house democrats passed senate republican legislation to reopen government and fund smart, effective border security solutions, but the president is rejecting these bipartisan bills which would reopen government over his obsession with forcing american taxpayers to waste billions of dollars on an expensive and ineffective wall, a wall he always promised mexico would pay for. the fact is, president trump has chosen to hold hostage critical services with health, safety, and wellbeing of the american people and with hold the paychecks of 800,000 innocent workers across the nation, many of them, veterans. he promised to keep government shutdown for months or years, no matter whom it hurts.