Every year, congress passes a budget around 12 bills that fund every government agency for the next fiscal year. This is an extremely crucial budget that is needed to be passed every year in order for our government to operate. If not passed, a government shutdown will occur causing delayed paychecks to all federal workers and military personnel (4 million total civilians) and rattle America's financial markets. If congress doesn't pass this budget by September 30th, 2023, our government will shut down.
It's extremely hard to get this bill passed because we have a split congress. The House of Representatives is made of majority republicans while our Senate is controlled by a majority of Democrats. The budget being passed by both the House and Senate in such polarizing times is very unlikely. The Republicans in the house are taking advantage of this opportunity to demand aggressive spending cuts. Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy, tried to compromise on both ends but ended up shutting down congress early for the weekend. He said to the news “This is a whole new concept of individuals that just wants to burn the whole place down”. Speaker Kevin McCarthy needs to find compromise because if he doesn’t listen to the republicans, they have the option to remove him as speaker and if he doesn’t listen to the democrats, no bill gets passed.
There are three possible outcomes that will occur by October 1st. One, Congress can’t agree on anything and our government is shut down. This will lead to millions of federal workers not being paid, the stock market becoming unstable, and the travel sector losing up to 140 million dollars a day. Two, Congress passes a Continuing Resolution “CR” which pushes the deadline for a government shutdown by another month or two. This would allow for more time to compromise and avoid the looming shutdown but would inevitably just be pushing the deadline back with no real solution. Three, Congress passes some or all of the 12 bills and the government continues to operate as normal. While this would be the best case, it is highly unlikely with the polarization of political parties within Congress.
It’s important to know what happens during a government shutdown and who's responsible for it. From this people can learn how to avoid personal disaster during a shutdown, how to keep personal finances safe, and knowing the job security of federal workers. Understanding the congressional budget process is an important factor in our education about different powers held in the constitution and how each branch of the government is affected by the federal budget which pays for everything they operate.
https://www.usnews.com/news/top-news/articles/2023-09-23/us-house-panel-approves-four-funding-bills-government-shutdown-deadline-approaches
6 comments:
At this point it feels like a shutdown is almost inevitable. It's been almost 4 years since the last shutdown, which was largely over Trump's border wall budget, and that one lasted 35 days and caused immense damage to federal workers, agencies, and dependents of federal agencies. I think at a certain point, a compromise must be prioritized over politics, on both the democrat and republican sides. I understand that there are issues that both parties are unwilling to concede, but with government agencies already bracing for shutdown, they would only be doing a disservice to the people they are trying to help. I think this entire situation is made worse by the far-right members of the Freedom Caucus, with their demands exemplifying the type of political polarization that you mentioned in the article. I think congress members, like the members of the Freedom Caucus, exploit the budget debates as a means of fueling their political goals via desperation, without understanding the devastating effects a shutdown could have (ironically, they would probably blame a shutdown on the opposing side for not agreeing with their terms). Overall, the situation is not looking good.
I think a connection to the system of checks and balances can be drawn from this threat of a government shutdown. The Framers of the Constitution wanted to ensure that there was no tyranny of the majority, so they implemented this bicameral legislative branch with both the House and Senate to act as a system of checks and balances against each other. They hoped that this system would encourage compromise.
This system comes at the cost of government efficiency, as exemplified through this shutdown, especially in light of such a polarized political climate where compromise is very difficult.
While a potential government shutdown is a major loss against how the government system is currently set up, the alternative where the budget is decided quickly and without conflict is not necessarily better if that means fewer checks and balances take place in such an important decision like the budget.
The failure to compromise by both parties threatens the health of nation. While bureaucracy can be a tool to slow down potential tyranny, it also results in an inefficient system where disagreement leads to decisions taking much longer to make. Both sides are at fault for a possible shutdown, and many politicians value there reputation among there party in pushing this polarized narrative rather then representing the needs of the American people. To end these shutdown requires compromise and overlooking the polarized extremist on both sides. In an ideal government, representatives responsible for the shutdown would be held accountable, however unfortunately this is not the case. As citizen, we cannot condone politicians prioritizing their party agenda over the needs of those they serve. Through activism and voting, we have the power to bring greater attention to this issue and those who cause it.
I think this situation demonstrates the system of federalism within our government through the balance of power between the House and Senate. However, this polarization also creates gridlock similar to what hyperpluralists are afraid of. Furthermore, I think it is really interesting how politics plays a role in this situation. For Speaker Kevin McCarthy, I would assume that there is much more at stake than just the government shutdown. The threat of possibly losing his job and credibility is most likely a big factor of decisions that he is making. This makes me question the authenticity of what he agrees with. Adding on to what was stated in this blog post, if more than four Republicans vote to remove McCarthy, then he must turn to the Democrats to back him. However, the it is highly unlikely that a Democrat would back the speaker of the opposing house, especially since McCarthy recently launched an impeachment inquiry against President Joe Biden.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/10/01/mccarthy-mcconnell-congress-government-shutdown/
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/republican-house-speaker-mccarthy-faces-ouster-threat-avoiding-shutdown-2023-10-01/
Most students and citizens in general panic at this situation with the fear of a government shutdown as they struggle to pass the dozen bills. However, there must be a greater focus on how compromises can be reached, rather than the health of the nation when a compromise is struggling to be found. This is mainly because such an inability to follow this process has in fact been constantly in our country's history. The passing of the 12 appropriations bills has been a part of our system for around 5 decades and has only been passed "on time" 4 times: 1977, 1989, 1995, and 1997 (those last three years they were still late in passing the budget blueprint).
The first step in this process, the budget proposal, is supposed to be passed by the president in early February to allow the House and Senate to start working on a budget resolution. However, the finalization of this resolution has been late for 30 of the past 49 fiscal years. Rather than falling through with this, 9 of 15 past years, the House and Senate have instead adopted legislative substitutes called deeming resolutions. These are essentially used due to House and Senate disagreements, bound to their own appropriators.
Obviously, as politics in our nation continue to become more polarized, such compromise in these decisions will take longer to make, and we may never meet every single deadline without having a strong compromise ready. However, I believe this is what strengthens our nation, the connected idea of having a checks and balances system. The idea that a bicameral legislative branch will prevent tyranny, and while arriving at a compromise will source tension, the eventual decision will find a more well-structured and "smarter" conclusion.
Sources:
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/09/13/congress-has-long-struggled-to-pass-spending-bills-on-time/
Most students and citizens in general panic at this situation with the fear of a government shutdown as they struggle to pass the dozen bills. However, there must be a greater focus on how compromises can be reached, rather than the health of the nation when a compromise is struggling to be found. This is mainly because such an inability to follow this process has in fact been common in our country's history. The passing of the 12 appropriations bills has been a part of our system for around 5 decades and has only been passed "on time" 4 times: 1977, 1989, 1995, and 1997 (those last three years they were still late in passing the budget blueprint).
The first step in this process, the budget proposal, is supposed to be passed by the president in early February to allow the House and Senate to start working on a budget resolution. However, the finalization of this resolution has been late for 30 of the past 49 fiscal years. Rather than falling through with this, 9 of 15 past years, the House and Senate have instead adopted legislative substitutes called deeming resolutions. These are essentially used due to House and Senate disagreements, bound to their own appropriators.
Obviously, as politics in our nation continue to become more polarized, such compromise in these decisions will take longer to make, and we may never meet every single deadline without having a strong compromise ready. However, I believe this is what strengthens our nation, the connected idea of having a checks and balances system. The idea that a bicameral legislative branch will prevent tyranny, and while arriving at a compromise will source tension, the eventual decision will find a more well-structured and "smarter" conclusion.
Sources:
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/09/13/congress-has-long-struggled-to-pass-spending-bills-on-time/
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