Recently in the news it seems everything is dominated by the government shutdown, but why has the government shutdown? This is the end of the fiscal year and congress has yet to agree on a spending bill to go into the 2014 fiscal year. The Republican controlled house insists that the new spending bill not include President Barrack Obama’s new healthcare bill commonly called Obamacare, and the Senate, controlled by the Democrats insists that the plan be implemented. Either way, this shutdown impacts the lives of most Americans. Anyone who is employed by the government and American Veterans will have their payment furloughed which means that they will not receive their pay which means that they will work without pay until the shutdown ends, when they will get paid in full with the money they will have accumulated during the shutdown. Also any national park or monument will be closed and non-essential research and inspections will stop.
“They should not be shut down” sophomore Madison Brady said when asked about the shutdown “It is really stupid.” These remarks seem to be how most American feel, a recent poll from Politico showed that 74% of Americans disapproved of Republicans and 61% approved of Democrats. Regardless of party lines Americans are saying enough is enough.
“We stand a good chance at defaulting.” President Obama told the Associated Press at a news conference. If the United States defaults on it’s debt it would result in major credit downgrades for America and would wreck havoc on the economy of the country.
“I think they are just trying to delay the inevitable” Brady said when asked about the default. The debt America owes is over sixteen trillion dollars and raising the debt ceiling would only balance the budget until January.
“This has gotten to the point of a real crisis for the country” These words, spoken by Republican senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina stress the urgency of ending the shutdown. The truth of the matter is, however, that either side is going to have to concede something in order to get the Government running again. The most recent Government shutdown was in the mid 1990s and the result of that actually led to the American budget being balanced. Whatever the result of this particular shutdown is, one thing is going to have to happen according to Brady. “They are going to have to open up eventually.”