With the federal government set to shut down on Monday, Republicans are increasingly relying on a failed political tactic in order to force debate on budgetary issues.
Republicans in the House of Representatives recently passed a spending bill that did not include funding for the Affordable Care Act.
According to The Guardian, President Barack Obama said that “the most basic constitutional duty Congress has is passing a budget. But if it doesn’t pass one before Sept. 30 … the government will shut down.”
This is not the GOP’s first attempt to shut down the federal government. Democrats have called the Republicans’ bluffs before.
This has resulted in rushed compromises at the last hour.
Instead of running a tight fiscal ship, Republicans on the far right are more willing to push the notion of smaller government, which they equate to better government.
When Republicans regained the majority in the House in 2010, it was like the U.S. gave the GOP a second chance to rein in the federal government.
Having a Republican-controlled House and a Democratic-controlled Senate has resulted in gridlock.
The Congressional split does not help Obama either.
This results in both parties inability to reach an agreement in how to fund the government.
Americans who wanted smaller government and greater privatization could have had their voices listened to in Washington, D.C., but their candidate, Republican Mitt Romney, ulimately lost the last election.
Republican efforts to thwart Democrat initiatives such as the Affordable Care Act have been seen as desperate measures because of the likelihood that there will be a Democratic president and a Democratic Senate in 2016.
Facing few remaining options, House Republicans have relied increasingly on desperate measures such as entertaining the possibility of impeaching the president in order to effectively shut down the government.
While senators such as Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) and pundits such as Glenn Beck applaud the efforts of House GOP members, conservatives like Karl Rove have fought against the tactic of shutting down the government.
While praising efforts by Republicans to block the Affordable Care Act, Karl Rove wrote in a Wall Street Journal editorial that defunding is not a feasible situation.
“Going down that road would strengthen the president while alienating independents,” Rove said. “It is an ill-conceived tactic, and Republicans should reject it.”
When senators such as Richard Burr (R-NC) call the Republican spending bill “the dumbest idea [they’ve] ever heard of,” it’s time to re-examine if shutting down the federal government is necessary.
Instead of defunding the entire Affordable Care Act, Congress should debate which parts of the act should remain.
It should do so without having to threaten to shut down the government and then claim its own ineptitude as political rhetoric in future elections.
Nicolas Rodriguez is a senior political science major and an assistant opinions editor at the Daily 49er.
