By snoadmin
During a United States government shutdown in 1995 and 1996, more than 1 million “non-essential” federal workers were sent home without pay for a total of one month due to the Republican-led House and President Bill Clinton’s failure to reach an agreement about a federal spending package. Sound familiar to anyone?
Well, during this government shutdown, “disability benefits and pension claims were held up for more than 400,000 veterans, thousands of visa and passport applications went unprocessed [due to the shutdown of passport agencies] and new patients were not accepted into clinical research trials at the National Institutes of Health,” according to an article published by National Journal.
If Democratic President Barack Obama and the Republican-led House once again fail to agree on a federal spending plan by March 4, our government will shut down just as it did in 1995-96 with Clinton.
In our opinion, the problem in our current government’s inability to reach a consensus derives largely from the House Republican’s obstinate manner in dealing with the budget plan.
After the House approved the controversial $61 billion in reductions proposed Saturday, Feb. 19, Democrats were unwilling to comply, and this is completely understandable.
Lately, it seems as though House Republicans are failing to be impartial in regards to our budget plan, and instead, are using our economical crisis to target programs they do not support, such as National Public Radio, collective bargaining and Planned Parenthood — and are only a few of the many examples.
CNN put it perfectly: “Cutting government spending is a moral imperative for the country, as is reaching an agreement on those cuts now to prevent government shutdown.” Although this statement may be deemed appropriate for both the Republicans and Democrats in our government, we believe that — in this case — Republicans are acting more uncooperatively by cutting an excess of funds for programs they don’t like, and — on top of that — closing themselves off to discussing the matter with those who oppose it.
“Republicans are threatening to force a shutdown if they don’t get everything they want,” Stated Senator Chuck Schumer. “That is reckless and irresponsible.”
In order to avoid a government shutdown, the government must agree on a federal spending package by March 4, when our current “stopgap spending measure” expires.
Recently, House Speaker John Boehner introduced a short-term spending bill that would cut $4 billion “to increase pressure on congressional democrats,” according to an article posted on CNN.com. The spending bill would eliminate funding to six programs that were included in Obama’s proposed budget that would be effective Oct. 1, and it would also cease funding for selected programs and projects added by legislators.
We applaud House Republicans for attempting to introduce an alternate spending plan, but, according to CNN, “The GOP proposal [is] intended to pressure Senate Democrats to agree or be branded as obstructionists.” However, seeing as Democrats are still unsatisfied with the design of the House’s recently proposed spending package, Republicans should be willing to discuss the issue with Senate Democrats and the White House in order to reach a middle ground, rather than presenting budget plans and adding that they will not conform to the spending plans Democrats have in mind.
House Republicans cannot propose a short-term budget plan in order to allow for more time to negotiate discussion. If any agreement — short-term or long-term — is to be made, it should be a legitimate accordance, rather than one that is forced upon either party in order to establish a plan for the long run.
Many of us witnessed the loss of the approximately $400 million in payments to furloughed employees after our government shutdown in the 90s, and hopefully — regardless of whether you consider yourself a Republican or Democrat — we can all agree that our government cannot afford yet another government shutdown. The House and the White House need to act like the adults they are, and be willing to negotiate a budget plan that would satisfy the majority of Republicans and Democrats the same.
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