U.S. Government Shutdown
Alison Cox
On October 1st, the United States Federal Government officially shutdown. This occured after the Congress failed to raise the appropriate funds for the financial year, forcing 1.3 million employees to continue working without any known payment date. The 16 day long government shutdown was the first one since the shutdown of 1995-96, and it was the third longest in U.S. history.
A government shutdown is a process the Executive Branch must begin when the Congress creates a funding gap. A funding gap is the amount of money that the government needs to support ongoing projects or the future advancement of businesses. In this case, the funding gap was created when two different parts of Congress could not agree on an appropriate continuing resolution. The Republican House of Representatives felt that the best way to close this funding gap was to defund the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as 'Obamacare'. The Democratic senate suggested that maintaining current funding levels with no further conditions would close the gap. These disagreements led to a series of political disagreements, and when the two legislative houses did not reach a compromise by September 30th, the federal government shutdown due to lack of funds at the beginning of the 2014 federal financial year. This caused many national parks, monuments and museums to close down, to the displeasure and inconvenience of many tourists. Not only did this shutdown affect the government, but also had an impact on non-profit organizations, taxpayer audits and businesses. The social media was quick to take sides on the shutdown; this had a great influence on the general public’s opinion. On October 9th, a Gallup poll found that 28% of Americans favored the Republican Party, which was 10 points less than before the shutdown, and the lowest ratings for either party since the Gallup poll began in 1992. Additionally, the Democratic Party had 47% of Americans in their favor before the shutdown, but now only has 43%. On October 16th, Congress passed a Continuing Appropriations Act, 2014, which the president signed very early October 17th. This act will suspend the debt limit until February 7th, 2014. But what will happen after February 7th? Perhaps another government shutdown, or, on a more positive note, a solution will be found.