The recent US government shutdown has been due to the division in politics. The republicans refused to pass the budget due to the controversial Obamacare and the request to raise the debt ceiling. The republican votes are needed to pass the Budget. Delaying of the budget means closure of all government offices and agencies. This will lead to more than 700,000 federal employees facing unpaid leave and with no guarantee of pay once the shutdown is over. This article termed as ‘US begins government shutdown as budget deadline passes’ posted in the BBC news website on 1st October 2013, written by Mark Mardell.
The move by the republicans is of positive nature, as the increase in the debt ceiling would not be considering the welfare of the Americans, as this will affect the fiscal policy. The Obama health care bill is not of sound reasoning. Using of debts to implement the bill will be a bad way to head as the bill is more of beneficial to the government than being beneficial to its citizens who are the taxpayers. There I strongly support the republicans stand and the president should as well reconsider the budget as well as the healthcare bill.
The US federal government shut down on 31st September 2013 on Monday after 17 years since such an incident occurred. This was after Republican representatives of the House refused to pass the Affordable Care Act as they wait for approval of a mandatory funding bill by the government. Refusal of the house also to pass a new current ceiling on debts. This new debt ceiling will allow the government to increase its debts limits as it is estimated that the current ceiling will be depleted by October 17. The issue on the debt ceiling is far more a complex and serious issue. The debt ceiling has been changed 79 times so far since it was first set up in 1917.
The republican have refused to pass a new debt ceiling or raise the current debt ceiling because of the funding of the Obamacare. They are proposing delaying or defunding of the Obamacare to approve the budget. On the other side, the president has officially not made any progress to try to negotiate with the republicans concerning anything dealing with the affordable healthcare act. This has led to stale standstill between the democrats and the republicans leading to the recent government shutdown.
The shutdown will affect many departments including 400,000 employees of the department of defense, 40,200 employees of the department of commerce, several institutions and national parks including museums/galleries and national Zoo’s.
As this will be on the beneficial of the employees in the long run. In the short run many American citizen are affected greatly by these turn of events as the incomes lost will be of great significance considering the high levels of living currently. It is estimated that a three closure of the government will to drop of the GDP of the country by 0.9% greatly affecting the economy as well. This shows the negative effects of the government shutdown hence something should be done to end this. A fast agreement between the president and the republicans should brought up for the beneficial of both the beneficial of the affected citizens and the economy as a whole.
Works Cited
"US begins government shutdown as budget deadline passes." BBC News. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Oct. 2013.
