n the history of the United States of America, there have been eight government shutdowns. The longest shutdown lasted twenty-one days on December 15, 1995 - January 6, 2013.
Why would the government need to shutdown?
Each year, the Senate and House of Representatives must approve of a budget plan for the year to spend on agencies and services within the United States (Time Inc., 2013). When a government comes to a decision of why they need to shutdown, it is answered with this: "There are wide swaths of the federal government that need to be funded each year in order to operate. If Congress can't agree on how to fund them, they have to close down" (washington Post, 2013).
Government Shutdown, October 1, 2013:
The budget for the year of 2014 was being mulled over in which a plan was made and was being sent back and forth between the House and the Senate. The biggest factor causing the delay of the budget being passed was the issue of spending money on the health care law created by President Obama (Time Inc., 2013). The Health Care Bill is: "“Obama Care, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), reforms the health insurance industry and the American health care system as a whole. The law contains over a thousand pages of provisions that give Americans more rights and protections and expand access to affordable quality health care to tens of millions of uninsured. Learn more about the PPACA by reading our Summary of Provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was signed into law March 23rd, 2010 and upheld by a Supreme Court ruling on June 28, 2012. During the ruling, the law was changed to allow States to opt-out of expanding access to Medicaid.
The law requires all Americans have health insurance by 2014 (or pay a per month fee for each month without coverage). Obama Care was ruled to be a tax and not a mandate.” (Obama Care Facts)
As of now in Congress, The House of Representatives is being held in majority of Republicans while the Senate is being held in majority of Democrats (UAW, 2013). Seeing as the Senate has the majority of Democrats, they wanted to pass the new healthcare bill. The House of Representatives being with the majority of Republicans did not want the health care bill to pass since they “did not want the government money used that way” (Time Inc., 2013). The House made their own revisions to the health care bill in which they wanted “provisions to either defund, derail, or otherwise chip away at Obama Care” (Yan/CNN, H., 2013) and sent it to the Senate which was ultimately rejected because they want “the law to expand access to health care and help rein in the rising costs of coverage” (Yan/CNN, H., 2013). The House then made more changes and sent it again to the Senate which again was discarded (Time Inc., 2013). It was a game of tug o’war.
What happens when the government shuts down?
When the government shuts down, many agencies that are funded by the government shutdown as well. This includes federal workers going unpaid and or furloughed, National Parks closing to any and all visitors, Washington D.C. sights closed, etc. Although these agencies shutdown, there are others who remain in business as usual, they include: the Defense Department, Courts, and the Agricultural Departments (Zabarenko/Thomson Reuters, D., 2013).
Effects of 2013 Government Shutdown:
With the outcome of the 2013 government shutdown there also additional attributes that are impacted related to costs. “These costs include economic disruption, negative impacts on Federal programs and services that support American businesses and individuals, costs to the government, and impacts on the Federal workforce.” (Burwell/WhiteHouse.gov, 2013). There were five main areas that were focused on the most as follows:
1. Federal employees at its peak of 850,000 per day were furloughed.
2. The shutdown cost the government billions of dollars.
3. The shutdown had significant negative effects on the economy.
4. The shutdown had a big impact on Americans who rely on programs and services that were stopped by the shutdown. This includes: cancelled safety inspections, delayed tax refunds, scientific research put on hold, etc.
5. The shutdown could have a long term effect on the ability to retain skilled and driven workforce that the government needs (Burwell/WhiteHouse.gov, 2013).
Dissatisfaction with Government:
Many Americans were upset with the government officials in the way the entirety of it was handled.
“Overall, the shutdown produced widespread political fallout. Dissatisfaction with Congress, elected officials and the workings of the political system has increased. An overwhelming majority of Americans say the budget dispute damaged the U.S. economy and the nation’s image in the world. A sizable majority lacks confidence that another crisis can be averted when the current agreement runs out early next year.” (Balz/The Washington Post, D, 2013).
*Note: There are many ways Obama care has been or can be spelled. “In a trend that seems to have taken off this summer, conservatives have started capitalizing the "C" in Obamacare while liberals keep it lowercased.” (Phillips/Vallejo Times Herald, A., 2013). When you look up Obama care on in the Google definition it comes up as spaced and lowered case. Point is…You will see it spelled many different ways. Another thing the two parties can also not agree upon is how to spell it. *
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