SHUTDOWN: Congress isn’t budging on the budget, and neither will America.
By Amy Wang, Opinions Editor
Knock knock! Who’s there? Nobody, because as of October 1, the government shutdown closed national parks and museums, among a list of other government offices. Guess that means you’ll have to reschedule your visit to the National Zoo for some other time when people are actually working.
Sorry, that wasn’t a good joke, but I’ve got another one for you: the government shutdown.
Let’s take a moment to backtrack and cover the bases for those confused as to what the shutdown means. Here’s a simplified run-down of what happened and what is happening: Congress is split between two parties—Republicans in the House and Democrats in the Senate. (If that isn’t a set-up for a really bad joke, then I don’t know what is.)
The House has voted over 40 times to repeal The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, or what the public has come to call “Obamacare.” However, as expected, when the vote reached the Senate, any acts against Obamacare were shot down. The latest attempt to rid of Obamacare (which is already law) came with the latest spending bill, in which the House tried to defund Obamacare. It comes as no shock that the Senate rejected the bill, and because October 1 marks the start of the government’s fiscal calendar, the government shut down.
Why? Because Congress controls the budget, and the government can’t spend money without Congress’ approval—a.k.a. the bill. Just imagine two short, chubby children fighting over the same cookie jar, while the rest of the class watches helplessly for any crumbs to drop, and you’ve got America in a nutshell.
The last government shutdown was more than fifteen years ago, in 1995 and 1996. It lasted for almost a month, which ended up costing the country millions of dollars. Loss of tourism from just the National Park Services sites alone added up to around seven million visitors. Hundreds of thousands of passport applications went unprocessed, as well as tens of thousands of visa applications from foreigners.
While the effects are still the same as the last shutdown (i.e. closure of non-essential federal offices), there are no guaranteed predictions of what this shutdown will bring just yet. One thing the public agrees on, however, is that there will be major consequences if the shutdown lasts too long. If the shutdown lasts for just over a week, federal programs like Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), which provides food to low-income mothers and children, will run out of funding.
The different government institutions won’t ever see eye to eye on the budget (or anything else these days, it seems), but this is ridiculous. Neither side is willing to bend even slightly to reach an agreement with the other. The House, a Republican majority, continues to attempt to postpone or defund Obamacare. On the other hand, the Senate, a Democratic majority, continuously rejects any changes the House offers that will affect Obamacare. (It’s also worth mentioning that Obamacare, despite being the cause of this turmoil, is not affected by the shutdown, as it is paid for with new taxes. The irony is enough to make me nauseous, or maybe it’s just Congress making me feel sick.) There is no visible end to this blame game of hot potato.
Right now, the biggest pressure on Congress is the public. Neither the House nor the Senate wants to look bad in the public’s eye, and a push from us will force them to work faster to reach a compromise. Even if we don’t all agree on Obamacare, we agree on one thing: a government shutdown won’t do any good, especially in our current economic state. So scream, shout, even sing—just say something! Every voice matters.
Just in case you need another reason—as if the laundry list isn’t long enough—to be angry at our government, let me remind you that about 800,000 federal workers are out of a job during this shutdown. Meanwhile, Congress is still being paid in full for sitting around and arguing in circles. It doesn’t matter how you look at this: the shutdown needs to end.
The government has a job to do. Both the House and Senate need to put away their childish stubbornness and get something done. Even if it takes tongue-biting and clenched fists, Congress should not keep us entangled in their relentless game of tug-of-war any longer.