As most of you already know, the government was shut down for a brief period of time because the budget could not be agreed upon in Congress and a deadline forced a shutdown of our government. Today (Monday), a short-term spending bill was passed by the House, the Senate, and then signed by Trump. This bill does not mean that congress has come to an agreement on the budget and its passage only provided funding until February 8th. There will still be much debate in the future about many government policies like DACA, immigration, military spending, disaster relief, and health care before a full budget bill can be passed.
Our government has been especially problematic recently on agreeing on certain topics which makes it very difficult to pass legislation in Congress like budget bills. This makes me worry because the Republicans control every branch of government and therefore should be able to implement their policies without much opposition. This phenomenon either signifies a divided Republican party or an ineffective American governmental system. Either way, I feel like the remaining years of Trump's presidency are not going to be any easier.
Questions:
1. Do you think both parties will be able to come to an agreement on immigration policies before the short-term bill expires?
2. Do you think that the government shutdown will make the Democrats and Republicans want to work together more or will it just drive them farther apart.
9 comments:
Immigration is a tough problem to solve, so I do not believe that both parties will come to an agreement on immigration policies before the short-term bill expires as the two polarized parties are not willing to compromise at the moment. So, I believe that the government shutdown will drive Democrats and Republicans farther apart. This is because the two main parties both have their beliefs (on topics such as immigration) and do not want to change their beliefs in order to compromise with the other party. This will make any sort of deal on immigration, or any controversial topic, very difficult to reach as the parties are so stuck in their beliefs.
I read a little bit of a New York Time's article this morning, which seemed to indicate the blame for the government shut down lay with the Democrat's rather than the Republicans, which surprised me a little because the government is controlled entirely by the Republican party. The little bit I did read stated that the government shutdown was a strategy by the Democratic party to force the issue on immigration. It was abandoned after public backlash. I don't know how I feel about that.
I agree with Bela that a topic like immigration is very difficult to achieve agreement on, especially because both sides are so firm about their stance. Therefore, I highly doubt that there will be agreement for immigration because it is so difficult to create bipartisan policies when both sides are not willing to budge from their opinions and positions. However, I think the government shutdown should theoretically cause both parties to want to work together, as it is clear that their unwillingness to compromise is having effects on the government as a whole. It would not make sense for it to drive them apart, because being more separated will not do them any good in the future.
I don't think that this situation will get any easier because Republicans and Democrats have decided their opinions, and most likely will not change them. Since they already have their thoughts on immigration I believe that this will drive them farther apart, and I think that we will have more situations like this in the future.
I do not believe that both parties will come to an agreement.I believe the short term bill is going to expire. As it expires both parties will strengthening their stance on immigration. I think at some point the government shutdown will force the parties to work together even if they do not want to. Hopefully, this government shutdown will help expose the issues of polarization in our government.
With the amount of tension and political difference between the democrats and republicans, I doubt that a true agreement will occur between them. Instead, I believe that a compromise will be formed in order to prevent another shut down. Because there already was a government shut down, the politicians in Congress are probably worried about another one, which would ruin their built up reputation. Thus, they would want to avoid a shut down which would stain their reputation. Altogether, a government shut down is possible, but with the amount of negatives in a shut down, I think that the democrats and republicans will try to avoid one.
I'm actually quite surprised that congress is still at a disagreement between the legislative bills because the Republicans control every branch, so I think the lack of consensus, or even more importantly the unwillingness to compromise, does not reflect well on the current state of American politics. It's interesting to see this polarization of not only the Democrats and Republicans, but even among the Republican party itself, and I think that unfortunately if there isn't any dramatic shifts or changes soon, agreements will be difficult if not impossible to reach.
Regarding Sam mentioning blame, I don't expect the blame to matter much in the long-run.
From a 538 article on the shutdown "My colleague Harry Enten described last week how the past two shutdown fights (two shutdowns in 1995-96 and one in 2013) turned the public mostly against congressional Republicans in the short term, according to polls, but that effect faded away after a few months."
I'm not sure what the government shutdown accomplished. The Democrats didn't get an immigration bill, the Republicans didn't get a long-term budget, and neither party even got a political advantage (which is a poor justification, but one nonetheless).
The question I have for Democratic leaders is, "What's the plan, guys?!!"
I believe that there will be another government shut down in February and it will be because neither side will be able to get what they want. Democrats want immigration and protection for the Dreamers, while Republicans did not get a long term budget and Trump did not get his beloved wall. I think that it will cause more blame on Democrats, as they were the ones that prevented the passage of the original bill that meant the shut down would not have happened in the first place, thus meaning more polarization between the two parties.
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