“Then Shut It Down” – Unintended Consequences

This shutdown also has unintended consequences for every American. Due to a budget not passed by Congress, the government has had to close down some important parts of its government. I’ve already discussed the national parks; now, I’d like to touch a more personal area of the government shutdown: Education.

            I know many teachers, professors, and people who love education (whether it is teaching or just learning). I am still considering the teaching profession within the next five or ten years. Teachers are always getting the short end of the stick. Since the shutdown has taken place, the Department of Education (and the Departments of Public Instructions & Auxiliary)  has had to cease funding of grants and other funds. Why you may ask…because the two departments within the Department of Education are subsidies.  All subsidies within the Federal Government have ceased (which is why many are concerned that the Women, Infants, and Children – or W.I.C. program will hurt many Americans because it isn’t being funded at the moment).  This shutdown is severally hurting those educators that are trying to better the education of their students through grant funding. Not only are teachers in North Carolina getting….shafted...but now they are getting it from their own government!

            One of the “solutions” proposed by Congress is to back legislation called a “continuing resolution” (to clarify, I think I covered in the last post but if not then I’ll explain again), which essentially continues funding the government until a certain time period. The problem with this is that is postpones the political debate over funding by the same time period. In layman’s term, it “kicks the can down the road” which doesn’t benefit anyone. Now, if the House of Representatives could pass a continuing resolution with no riders attached (again, a “rider” is an amendment – so to speak – put into the legislation) because once a rider is attached, it will immediately create controversy resulting back to square one. If the House passes it, then the Senate should pass it as well so the President can sign it and the shutdown will be over.   This may sound very easy and should be easy to do, but when you have 435 voting members of one body (The House of Representatives) and fifty members of another body (The Senate) all trying to agree on one issue AND THEN having to have the President sign off on it as well, it becomes extremely challenging to accomplish.  This is why Political Science is in the “Arts & Sciences” category. It is an art and there is definitely science involved to alleviate the problems of government. Well, so go the theory.

“Then Shut It Down” – The Rippling Effect

This shutdown isn’t just about which budget to pass…it is so much more. It affects every American in some way or another. Let’s start with the obvious things: let’s start with the national parks service, for example.

Due to a Government shutdown, all national parks and monuments will be closed because the staff that maintains these places are federal workers.  They will not work as it would be in violation of a law (and I can’t remember the law but I’ll double check). Now since there are national parks, and monuments, are in every state, it will affect every citizen in the states. It’s really sad because for all the members of Congress, it seems like they don’t want to stand by their constituents.  Here me out on this: National parks and monuments generate a lot of revenue for surrounding areas and businesses with souvenirs, restaurants, and even hiking trails provide camping opportunities and money-raising goals for upkeep of such trails.  When these places close, none of these places get tourists, which hurts local economies.  As much as each party says, “we can manage without them”, in the end, the local communities that depend on tourism revenue can’t survive without business.  It is simple, and a very practical basic rule to remember: all politics is local.

Yes, the shutdown is about not passing a budget by the Legislative Branch. A budget, as many know, has the main topic of money and funding allocations. There are certain things that will still continue during the government shutdown time. The first thing to note is that if an American is on social security, Medicare, and disability, then they will continue to be sent out (like those people will still get their checks).   Even the Affordable Care Act Law will still be funding because its funding is not tied to appropriations budgeting (its funding comes from another source).  Now one of the things about the shutdown does is that is ceases all forms of new applications and stalls all current stuff. So as stated, people will still receive their social security checks, but if people apply to get a check, then they will be postponed since there is nobody to process the requests.  The same thing goes for hunting licenses, driver’s licenses, passports, etc.

            Staying on the topic of money, it is important to realize that funding cuts don’t just stop with national parks and monuments.  How long do you think it will take for Congressional leaders to cut funding, or just not fund, other areas of government without thinking about the bigger picture (while still remembering the smaller pieces that make up the bigger picture).  What’s next to not fund…education? Transportation? Science? It’s already starting to happen with education in other states. In a really sad way, maybe this is “the trickle-down effect” that the Republican Party loves to remind us about; or, maybe it’s the Democratic Party’s version of “spreading the wealth” even though the wealth is drying up because the United States government has shutdown. Okay, time for a quick break so sit tight and the next blog piece will up soon enough. In the meantime, if you have questions, feel free to e-mail me – timoteohines@gmail.com

“Then Shut It Down”

It seems like I’m living in season five of The West Wing, only I’m not.  The United States Government has been shut down for over twenty-four hours now.  I know plenty of people who work within the federal government and they are not working or getting a furlough if they do work.  I honestly figured a deal would be struck in the eleventh hour – just like all the other times the United States has encountered “close calls” of a government shutdown.

            Now that the government has shut down and it doesn’t look like it will re-open any time soon, it is important to understand how Congress has failed to represent the people that elected them to govern.  Some would say it is a partisan gridlock but when one looks further into the situation, they will see that the gridlock and overall failure of this Congress falls on bipartisan lines.  While it is true the House of Representatives is controlled by the Republicans, the Senate is controlled by the Democrats, it is not true that they can’t get along and pass legislation.

            The Republican-led House of Representatives tried to pass legislation dubbed as “continuing resolutions” which would fund the government for a certain amount of time. The thing that is often overlooked by the general public is that they also attached riders to the legislation. A “rider” is simply an attachment to a piece of legislation that has a specific goal to either undermine a standing law.  Now I’m not going to get into the specifics of what the national news networks are reporting. The bottom line is both parties failed to come to an agreement to fund the government; which ironically, is one of their sole purposes of the legislative branch of government. The Legislature makes the budget and the Executive Branch either signs it or vetoes it (hence the system of checks & balances).

            Now there are a lot of things going through my head. So to alleviate this, I’m going to go ahead and post this piece and start on the next one. If anything, it will keep you coming back to see what I’m thinking and to see my point of view on this historic time during the first half of the twenty-first century. Personally, I think the government shutdown of the United States Government will last at least four week…then again, I’ll address that soon enough.