Cardi B Breaks Down the Government Shutdown: “All for a fucking wall”
On Wednesday night, Cardi B started trending on Twitter because the rapper posted an Instagram video about the on-going government shutdown in her signature Cardi style — irreverent, unapologetic, and littered with expletives. For those still confused about what Cardi was referring to when she said “this shit is really fucking serious, bro,” Interview decided to fact-check and annotate Cardi’s public policy announcement. #Cardi2020.
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Hey y’all, I just wanna remind y’all because it’s been a little bit over three weeks. Okay? It’s been a little bit over three weeks.
Cardi is referring to the partial government shutdown, which is currently in its fourth week. President Trump has repeatedly boasted about keeping the government shut down until Democrats allow him to spend $5.7 billion in funding for a border wall in Mexico. This is the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.
Trump is now ordering, as in summonsing, federal government workers to go back to work without getting paid.
The shutdown has affected about 80,000 federal employees, with many of them missing their paychecks. On Tuesday, the Trump administration said it called on nearly 50,000 government workers to return to work. According to the New York Times, a typical federal worker has missed $5,000 in pay so far.
Why am I trending?
— Cardi B (@iamcardib) January 17, 2019
Now, I don’t wanna hear y’all motherfuckers talkin’ bout, ‘oh, but Obama shut down the government for 17 days.’ Yeah, bitch, for healthcare. So your grandma could check her blood pressure, and you bitches could go check your pussy at the gynecologist with no motherfucking problem.
Amidst increasing frustration toward Trump’s shutdown, some have shared “friendly reminders” that Obama once initiated a government shutdown as well. Under the Obama administration, the government entered a shutdown from October 1 to October 16, 2013. Two issues were at stake: the Affordable Care Act (widely known as “Obamacare”) and raising the debt ceiling. Republicans refused to pass bills to fund Obamacare, which is what Cardi refers to when she says, “So your grandma could check her blood pressure.” But equally important was that the government, at the time, was closing in on the legal limit of $16.699 trillion in debt, hindering its ability to pay back Treasury notes on time. Republicans wanted broader spending cuts in exchange for raising the debt limit. Both parties eventually came to terms, agreeing to raise the debt ceiling and end the shutdown. In Trump’s case, the border wall is the only issue contributing to the shutdown. Also, whereas Obamacare was already law, funding for the border wall is not.
Now, I know a lot of y’all don’t care because y’all don’t work for the government or y’all probably don’t even have a job. But this shit is really fucking serious, bro. This shit is crazy. Like, our country is in a hellhole right now. All for a fucking wall.
Cardi is urging her followers to take this issue seriously. The “fucking wall” is indeed border wall that Trump wants to build. His claims about the crime rates of undocumented immigrants are largely unsubstantiated.
And we really need to take this serious. I feel like we need to take some action. I don’t know what type of action, bitch, because this not what I do. Bitch, I’m scared. This is crazy, and I really feel bad for these people that gotta go to fucking work to not get motherfucking paid.
Cardi further urges her followers to see the urgency of the shutdown. Though she doesn’t specify what specifically they can do, she suggests we all need to do something. The sympathy Cardi expresses for these unemployed federal employees is more than we’ve seen from Trump since the beginning of the shutdown, or possibly ever.
