A federal government shutdown is when Congress fails to pass necessary spending legislation for government operations. With the separation of powers we have in the US, both the Senate and House must pass an agreed upon budget before it goes to the President to be signed into law. Government shutdowns usually are the result of the President and one or both houses being unable to move past disagreements over budget allocation prior to the budget cycle that runs from October 1st to September 30th (Morone).
This current shutdown is being driven by multiple factors, the biggest of which is strong disagreement between the President and the Republican-controlled House of Representatives over Obama’s Affordable Care Act and House budget bills that include provisions that delay or defund “Obamacare”. Because government couldn’t come to an agreement, an estimated 800,000 government employees will be laid-off without pay across the hundreds of “non-essential” government programs that include the likes of national parks, landmarks and museums.
Having strong feelings about what it means to be an American and to have to work hard for something you want, I think this shut down is somewhat necessary. People are acting as if this is the first shutdown our government has ever had. Ford, Carter, Reagan, Clinton and even Bush had shutdowns during their times in office all for different reasons. On one side, I understand that there are better ways to try and stand your political ground than to do it at the expense of the American people, which is why I believe members of Congress and the president should be taking the pay cuts, not federal employees who have nothing to do with this. On the other hand, I see a hypocritical, poor-excuse-for-a-leader standing before me calling this a “Republican Shutdown”, while he sits there and refuses to negotiate any part of his detrimental healthcare law, such as the taxation of important medical devices that will inevitably cause less efficient healthcare.
The Affordable Care Act is far from perfect, and just because Democratic-controlled houses passed it in 2010, does not mean that it is the right thing for the majority of Americans. Obamacare takes us on a decisive road to a more central control. The reason why it’s extremely catastrophic is that virtually all healthcare innovation comes from the US. The existence of centrally-controlled healthcare systems in Europe and Canada has placed US liberals under the illusion that a centrally-controlled healthcare system is desirable for the US. The problem is that the centrally-controlled systems outside the US have improved healthcare from their citizens only by importing US innovations (Forbes). Hopefully this shut down, if anything, will open the eyes of many Americans who don’t have any idea who or what they they were voting for in the last 2 elections, especially when it comes to something this important to our future.
