It takes two to tango when it comes to government shutdowns

In response to Rep. Susie Lee’s Feb. 4 commentary:

Rep. Lee lays the entire responsibility for the partial government shutdown on President Donald Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Regardless of Mr. Trump’s trash talk in which he took responsibility for the shutdown prior to it actually happening, it still requires two parties to have a stalemate. If one or both sides refuse to negotiate, a stalemate exists. The optics of representatives on the beach in Puerto Rico and Nancy Pelosi’s attempt to embark on a whirlwind world tour paint a different picture for me.

But I will give my new representative credit for trying to do something about this problem. I wonder how much we would have saved the taxpayers had the “leaving D.C. during a shutdown” part already been in effect. This sounds like it will impact the Democrats more than the Republicans. I seem to recall the president staying in D.C. during the shutdown, tweeting silly things about being alone in the White House.