We are now on the 7th day of the government shutdown. What does this even mean?
The government’s fiscal year runs from October 1st to September 30th, which means that this time every year congress has to pass spending bills, which fund the government. These bills keep things like national museums, parks, and zoos open and help run major departments in the government. Due to the shut down, more than 800,000 federal employees will not have jobs to go to, applications for new passports or ammunition will be halted, and government loans will be temporarily unavailable, and that’s only what is being affected on the surface.
But don’t worry, through this all, congress still continues to get paid!
The new spending bills did not get passed because House Republicans insisted that it include ways to defund or drastically change Obamacare while the House Democrats are determined to protect it.
Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, a republican, believes Obamacare is terrible and will stop at nothing to halt it. Seriously, he’s really passionate about defunding this law; he even made a 21+-hour speech on the Senate floor about it. Senator Ted Cruz stated, “I intend to speak in support of defunding Obamacare until I am no longer able to stand,” and that he did.
Basically, to summarize Senator Ted Cruz’s ridiculously long speech, he believes that Obamacare, which requires all Americans to have health insurance, gives the government too much power. This is an issue that should be handled by the citizens.
On the other hand, the Democrats believe that this law will help stabilize the rising cost of health insurance. Obamacare ensures those with pre-existing medical conditions with coverage in order to combat medical insurance companies that denied it.
Has this happened before? Yes, once in 1995. The government was shut down for 21 days.
Should we be worried? Probably. Not only does this affect our American psyche and views on the government, it could also affect the economy. According to Brian Kessler, an economist with Moody’s Analytics, a three to four week shutdown would cost us about 55 billion. Yikes.
The government shut down exemplifies how polarized congress really is. This situation is like a really intense “Mean Girls.” If only we could put our representatives in morning detention, like the “Breakfast Club.” Maybe then our government would actually get something done.