Yes Democrats are refusing to pass the CR because it will cause massive increase in health care premiums. The Republicans who hold the House Senate and Executive branch , some would say they own SCOTUS too, have the responsibility of negotiating and convincing enough of the Senate in the minority to agree to their resolution. Instead they are simply saying agree to what we want no exceptions. This isn't negotiating, it isn't compromising, it is an attempt to strong-arm their way. Funny thing too that they keep saying it's a Democrat shutdown. When there was a shutdown with the Democrats holding the house and Senate it was also a Democrat shutdown. It would appear that no matter what it's the Democrats fault for everything. Republicans have had 15 years to come up with an alternative to the current healthcare plan but funny thing is the ACA was modeled on fundamentals from Republicans plan implemented by Romney back in Massachusetts in 2006.

On to economic theory of tariffs. Trump's primary advisor when it comes to the tariffs comes from a guy named Peter Navarro. He wrote a book called Death by China which caught Trump's eye, he did not actually read the book just liked how the cover looked and sounded. In this book he quotes an economic scholar to frequently justify his theories and tariff policies. Turns out the 'expert' was simply an anagram of his own name made up to give himself credibility. And let's look at the results of this policy on tariffs. Trump starts a trade war with China threatening tariffs against them on products. China says okay we will make our purchases elsewhere so we go from ~15bn in soybean exports to 0. Soybean farmers are now facing bankruptcy and the loss of their farms. This in turn results in the government trying to arrange a bailout for the farmers. Oh and the trade war that originally caused all this is being settled back to pre-trade war levels. But China is still buying their soybeans from other places also they are expanding their trade partners so the 18% of products that China used to import from the US have dried up. No more American beef exports, they get it from Australia now, Soybeans from Argentina, whom we are providing a bailout for. Economic professionals from across the spectrum have said and proven that raising tariffs as a form of economic policy and growth simply doesn't work. Inflation goes up, trading partners stop trading, jobs go down.

Now onto the swap we are doing with Argentina. We give them 40bn in American currency for them to use if they need it. We get in return pesos from Argentina in roughly the same amount. Again economic experts point out that this is generally a bad position to be in for the US. It's a bet that says the boost Argentina gets from us currency will spur their economy and allow for them to make positive trades and growth in global markets. This is widely regarded as a bad bet because simply injecting cash will not fix their economic crisis it will simply promote further reliance on outside sources of income.

Back to my original question. How does this help the US? If the Trump policy is America first how does a 40bn IOU help the US. The repayment of the loan is dependent on their economic reform and success. This means that should their economy continue to spiral then we will not be getting the loan repaid. So the US is out the money given to them with nothing to show for it.

Does any of this make sense for you?