This past weekend, U.S. Representative Alex Mooney proudly voted to shut down the federal government — once on Friday and again on Saturday — which would have put the majority of West Virginia’s 30,000 federal civilian employees out of work for however long the shutdown lasted. According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, roughly 10,000 of those live here in Mooney’s District 1.
Federal employees would have been furloughed (not allowed to work) or forced to work for the duration of the shutdown. None would have been paid until the government reopened; however, a recent law guarantees them backpay.
Fortunately, then-Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (ousted Tuesday) realized negotiating with hardliners in the Freedom Caucus, of which Mooney is a member, was a nonstarter. He instead worked with Democrats to pass an emergency 45-day stopgap funding bill to prevent a shutdown.
What did Mooney and his fellow far-right Republicans want so badly that they were willing to put millions of Americans — thousands of West Virginians — out of work and to hobble dozens of services we all rely upon?
Up for debate was certain discretionary (read: non-defense) spending, about 11% of the total government budget, excluding Social Security and Medicare.
Leading up the shutdown (but prior to the stopgap bill), hardliners wanted “cuts of up to 25% in areas such as agriculture, infrastructure, science, commerce, water and energy and health care,” according to Reuters. These included cuts to headstart programs; federal law enforcement; affordable housing programs and medical research funding.
Some of the deepest cuts Republicans sought was to Title I grants for public education: roughly $14.7 billion. Title I grants help schools that have 40% or more of students who are considered low income. In West Virginia, 350 schools across all 55 counties receive Title I funds, including five schools in Monongalia County and seven in Preston County last year.
But Mooney and the Freedom Caucus also demanded certain (mostly culture war) measures to gain their support. This included funding for Trump’s border wall and draconian asylum standards, no aid for Ukraine, forbidding pharmacies from dispensing mifepristone (a drug that can be used for medication abortions), removing Defense Department coverage for abortion travel, prohibiting DoD racial diversity programs and adding restrictions to what can be taught about race-related topics. So as you can see, not all of their demands involved government spending.
Mooney and other far-right Republicans try to make it seem like government debt is the greatest crisis threatening Americans. While it is true that federal debt cannot grow infinitely without consequences, instead of targeting two of the largest sources of debt — defense spending and unpaid taxes — Mooney and his ilk target the programs that help the greatest number of Americans and, specifically, the greatest number of West Virginians. Not to mention that their government-shutdown antics are what caused the U.S.’s recent credit downgrade. Now the country pays more in interest — essentially free money to creditors.
Ideology can’t be hurt, but people can. If Mooney actually cared about the people of the Mountain State, he wouldn’t have been willing to risk so many of the jobs and programs West Virginians rely on. Mooney’s loyalty should be first and foremost to the people he represents, not to a political creed.
