Monday, October 7, 2013
Government Shutdown
This Shutdown is by no means good for the economy. An expected 800,000 government employees would be sent home and tons of money will be lost. In Washington D.C. it is estimated that everyday the government is shutdown that the local economy will lose 200 million. I think they could have approached this issue differently with another stopgap budget, but congress can't even decide on this. I thought this administration was supposed to boost the economy not make it worse? I don't blame a single party, but more of the legislative and executive government as a whole. Agreements need to be made. Congress is so split that it is impossible for anything to get passed, even if it is something that is funding itself. From my analysis of many articles it seems that most of the problem revolves around Obamacare. The house passed a funding bill that delayed Obamcare and repealed a tax on medical devices. The senate rejected the bill and there is still no agreement, so now a government shutdown. Republicans believe that Obamacare will have bad effects on the economy and on health care.There are two totally opposite views on this situation, so it is very difficult to come to an agreement. Republicans need to find a replacement for Obamacare if they want to get it out of the picture, and democrats need to negotiate a deal that will please conservatives and themselves. A issue in spite of the government shutting down is the debt ceiling. Treasure Secretary Jacob Lew stated that on October 17 the US will run out of borrowed money. There are so many huge issues in our government today, and with congress being so split it will be very hard to solve these problems. The only way I believe these problems will be solved is with negotiation of a new bill.
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A very agreeable stance indeed. The government does need to get its act together and they can't keep waiting for the other side to give in. No matter how much I want to see no more obamacare, I'm not entirely sure if that will happen. There isn't much left to do now besides watch and complain about the situation like I'm sure to do until the shutdown is lifted.
ReplyDeleteThe situation is out of the hand of the citizens and up to congress to make it right. The stubbornness of the U.S. government is now affecting the lives of citizens as many americans will be without pay until an agreement is reached. Congress must find a way to move past the different political parties.
ReplyDeleteWhat scares me the most is how close we will be and when we reach the debt ceiling. If citizens cannot keep borrowing money without going into debt and seeing evasions and such, why should our government be able to. The Senate and the House need to reach an agreement, but unfortunately I do not see this happening soon as each party is trying to achieve their own agendas for what they believe will be better for America.
ReplyDeleteThe suggestion that the proposition of a new healthcare bill is very interesting. If it were possible for both parties to come to agreement on a new bill to replace Obamacare, then it would be possible to end the shutdown and pass a new stopgap. However, it seems as though the two major parties cannot agree on anything at the moment which is why I have a hard time imaging that working. I believe that in regards to healthcare, there is no legislative way around Obamacare at this point. The Republicans arguably went too far trying to stop it, and now the only way for our government to operate again is for them to accept it for the time being, and possibly trying repealing or rewriting the bill in several years.
ReplyDeleteThe struggle with agreement definitely seems to be the major topic at hand. Trw2017, I dont believe any new bill will be passed at the moment either, I mean congress cant even do the necessities that must be fulfilled, theres no way that they will be able to agree on a new bill. Obamacare doesn't seem to promising at the moment, the point both Trw2017 and Knauss made. Connor I think your right when you state that government needs to drop the idea of Obamacare and focus on something new that will be able to replace it. It would be wonderful if both the conservatives and the democrats, like you said but it definitely hard to please both. Very interesting points and a great blog.
ReplyDeleteThe Presidential organization of the US allows for so-called divided government, meaning that it is possible for different parties to control different branches, making compromise necessary for anything to get done. This divide can be particularly problematic when it comes to passing necessary funding bills. The Republicans control the House, and are trying to make funding the government contingent on a different issue besides funding (ACA, aka "Obamacare.") The Democrats feel that this is unfair, because they consider it a separate issue from the budget. Divided government requires consensus about how to handle key issues like funding.
ReplyDeleteIn a sense, this is a low grade constitutional crisis, in that our implicit norms about separating funding form other political debates have lost validity. I think that ultimately things will move forward without healthcare being significantly affected in part because establishing the precedent that a party that controls one-half of one branch of government can make funding contingent on major policy concessions would be bad for both parties.