Gossip On the Hill
In recent weeks, talk has been circulating around Washington about a potential shutdown of the government. On the Hill, President Obama and House Republicans hold conflicting opinions about how deep cuts should be into the federal budget for this year. Republicans hope for deep cuts that set a more urgent tone for trimming the deficit, while President Obama is advocating for a smaller set of cuts that recognizes the deficit as a long-term problem, but not an immediate emergency.
While both sides of the aisle have obviously different agendas, a government shutdown cannot be allowed. President Obama and House Republicans need to pull their boot-straps up, like they demand of the American people every day, and work together to find a budget compromise; not only for the sake of their images in the public eye, but also for the sake of the people. A shutdown of the government, if only for a few days, poses significant cost to the country as a whole.
The Nitty Gritty
The current situation in Washington owes itself to the extreme lack of bipartisanship on the hill that has characterized our political climate for the past decade. Last Tuesday, House Republicans filed scores of amendments proposing sharp cuts in domestic spending. If Republicans had their way, they would cut $64 billion in funding for domestic and foreign aid appropriations, as well as funding for the EPA, Community development block grants, Pell grants, the Security Exchange Commission, and the National Science Foundation. President Obama’s budget is quite the opposite; in his budget, some of the only cuts lie in domestic aid appropriations. In fact, his budget increases funding for financial regulation, the EPA, and education.
While, as a Conservative, I empathize with many of the cuts House Republicans are prepared to enact and recognize that deeper cuts need to be made than in Obama’s budget proposal, Republicans need to understand that the budget is a long-term problem; the national debt took more than 200 years to create, and it will not go away in one, or even several, years. The cuts must occur, and certainly more deeply than the President proposes. However, if the cuts dip too deeply into the federal government’s coffers in a short period of time, our country may be in a greater mess than the quagmire we are stuck in today. Moreover, the failure to enact deep cuts in the federal budget is not worth another shutdown of the government; the costs are too great.
A Repetition of History?
Since 1987, the government has shut down on 5 separate occasions, and while the first 4 shutdowns were quickly corrected, the government shutdown of 1995 gives us reason to fear a shutdown today. If the government were to shutdown on March 4th, when the current funding appropriations for the federal government end, Medicare recipients will be denied care, claims and office visits for social security will go unfilled, the Center for Disease Control will stop disease surveillance, and toxic waste cleanups will stop. Even more important in the current fiscal crisis, taxpayers lose hundreds of millions of dollars each day due to government furloughs and IRS claims that will not be fulfilled in a shutdown situation. Moreover, passport and visa processing will be delayed, incurring millions of dollars in cost to airlines in trip delays. Finally, the situation will bring divisiveness in Washington to a new high.
Regardless of the point Republicans or the President hope to make by refusing to compromise, the costs of a government shutdown are severe. It is time for divisiveness in Washington to end; the deficit must be reduced, and both Republicans and Democrats in Washington must work together to implement the cuts necessary and keep the government operating.
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