The Shutdown Breakdown

Hello Readers,

After weeks of failed deals, measures that would never work, and attempts to pass them anyway, the US Congress failed to pass a bill that would allow the United States to keep spending money. As everyone probably already knows, people, we're in shutdown.

Or, more accurately, we're in partial shutdown. What exactly does that mean? Basically, the government can no longer do anything with discretionary spending. The "credit card" is maxed out, and we did not vote to raise our limit. This article from the BBC does a good job of explaining who is affected, but I'll break it down even further.

- About 80% of government employees will still go to work today. These include people who are not paid by discretionary spending (such as postal workers), people who will not be paid but still have to carry out government tasks that are not paid for by discretionary spending (like social security workers), and people who will not be paid but are considered essential "to cases of threat to human life or property where the threat can be reasonably said to the near at hand and demanding of immediate response (such as TSA officers, FEMA workers, and the FBI). The "essential" staff will generally not receive paychecks until the shutdown is over, but President Obama signed a bill last night to ensure that active-duty military will still be paid.

- Members of Congress (both the House and Senate) will still be paid, although their staff will not be, as they are considered "non-essential."

- All of the Smithsonian museums (including the National Zoo) and National Parks (including Yosemite, which turns 123 years old today) are closed until further notice. Staff essential to these attractions, like zookeepers and emergency services, will remain on duty. Those staying in National Parks will be asked to leave as soon as possible. The Smithsonian cannot legally allow their employees to keep working, even as volunteers.

- National monuments are also closed. The National Park Service is actively barricading the Lincoln Memorial and World War II Memorial, among others (reports suggest that WWII vets have knocked down the barricade outside the memorial to get inside). The NPS security is still on staff to monitor these monuments.

- Over half of the workers at the Department of Education and Department of Health and Human Services have been sent home.

- The Environmental Protection Agency has effectively closed. There is still a skeleton crew on hand if a major environmental disaster happens.

- The United States is not free-falling into anarchy. Your local government is still largely functioning, and the police are still there to arrest you if you decide now is the time to start a crime spree.

Those are the facts, now for the analysis. Like the sequester before it, the government shutdown hurts the average American more than anyone else. While I am glad that we can still keep those protecting our nuclear stockpile employed, that satisfaction is severely marred by knowing that the Department of Education cannot continue their work on Race to the Top, a grant competition designed to help struggling schools; that millions of schoolchildren and families who had hoped to visit the Smithsonian museums in the coming weeks now must make alternative plans; and that anyone who had hoped to learn more about our space program at www.nasa.gov will find that they cannot even access the homepage. During the sequester, all tours to the White House, even informal ones, were cancelled; the same is now true for the Capitol and Supreme Court as well. If you think about that, it means that in a government by the people, of the people, and for the people, most of the people cannot set foot inside the rooms where our country's future is being decided.

And then there's Congress. Congress, who stayed up past midnight last night trying to pass a bill to avert a shutdown. Congress, who failed to pass such a bill, and yet faces no real repercussions. Congress, who has led the nation right into this mess. As most of you likely know, the core conflict was this: Americans needed the government to stay open, but the Republicans badly wanted to defund, delay, or destroy the Affordable Care Act (also known as the ACA or Obamacare), and the Democrats badly wanted to ensure that the ACA remained as-is. So, the Republican-majority House of Representatives would pass a budget bill that included language on the ACA, the Democrat-majority Senate would reject it, up until midnight last night, when party politics superseded the needs and wants of the American public. The result was that the Congressmen and Congresswomen responsible at this mess will continue to be paid to point fingers at each other, while the people they claim to represent get screwed (see above). 

I don't blame the Republicans or Democrats - I blame all of them, collectively. Most other Americans, do, too - though there are no new opinion polls since the shutdown began, the polls from yesterday show Congress's approval rating sitting at a new all-time low of 10%, while disapproval is at 87%. I would say that the Republican Congresspeople are slightly more to blame, in that they could have just passed a bill without anti-Obamacare language and saved the fight for a better time, but both parties had the option to collectively realize that keeping the government funded ought to be more important then their political agenda and pass the budget bill, regardless of what it did to the Affordable Care Act.

A bill has come to Congress numerous times suggesting that they should not be paid in the event of a shutdown, but, predictably, it has been set aside in limbo, because who would realistically vote on conditions that take away their paycheck? So, while I am unsure how such a measure would be passed, I wanted to suggest a few options I have heard for getting Congress to get their act together, stop the bickering and brinksmanship, and represent their citizens, not their party:

1. Fire the lot of them. I like this idea in principle, but it creates bigger problems. If we immediately fire everyone in Congress, we'd have to take the time to elect a whole new Senate and House of Representatives, when what we really need to do is end the shutdown as soon as possible.

2. Ensure that everyone in Congress cannot run for re-election in the next cycle, or if they do, ensure that they do not get another term. Again, I like this one in principle, but not in practice. If Congresspeople do not have to worry about re-election, what duty will they feel to their citizens? They could easily pursue their personal or political agenda without fear of losing public support. Also, public opinion polls suggest that while most people disapprove of Congress as a whole, most people support their own Representative or Senator. During the next election cycle, few voters are likely to blame their Representatives in government for the shutdown. 

So, we can't exactly hit Congress at their jobs. The better option is to go after their money. These measures would require some sort of government approval - good luck with that - but they would be more effective in practice.

3. Congress doesn't get paid until the shutdown, just like hundreds of thousands of other federal workers. 

4. For every day that the shutdown continues, Congress takes a 10% pay cut per day, OR they go one month without pay (7 day shutdown = 7 months where Representatives and Senators do not get paid).

Some will argue that these financial members are unfair, and that we'd be legislating Congress into the poorhouse, but let's be serious. They are not, like many Americans, living paycheck to paycheck. They just ensured that hundreds of thousands of Americans will go without pay for the foreseeable future, with no consequence to themselves. Furthermore, when anyone else in this country fails to do their job, they get fired or at the very least receive a pay cut. If these are supposedly our leaders, why do they not lead by example, instead of acting like detached nobility? Something must be done to end this shutdown as soon as possible, and to ensure Congress cannot allow this to happen again. We have now seen two shutdowns and a sequester in 17 years, and all three of these events were supposed to be so terrible that they could never happen. We're showing the current generations that America, arguably the #1 superpower in the world, is fatally flawed and dysfunctional.

However, there is the smallest of silver linings to put this in perspective. When most countries have a shutdown like this, it is a sign of an even bigger disaster, such as total financial collapse, civil war (though Bashar Al-Assad of Syria still manages to pay his people), or revolution. There has been no military coup, we are not in the midst of a financial crisis to put the Great Depression to shame, and people are not fighting or rioting in the streets. The Earth did not stop spinning. That's not much to be grateful for right now, but it is something.

My usual sign-off seems inappropriate right now. Good luck, fellow Americans.