Government Shutdown

On October 1st at 12:00 am, the United States government shut down for the first time since 2019. Many people may wonder how the government shut down. Well, when a president gets elected, they have from the day they take office, January 20th, until 11:59 pm on September 30th to pass annual appropriation bills that fund federal government agencies and operations. Though this responsibility is not put fully on the president, it's up to Congress to agree on a budget before the new financial year. 

There are many disagreements in Congress because of the two opposing political parties. As of now, the Republican Party controls both chambers of Congress. Even though they control or, in other terms, have more Republicans than Democrats in both chambers, in the Senate, the Republicans are short on votes for the bill they want to pass. This gives Democrats a position to negotiate the bill. The Democrats want an extension on the expiring tax credits, making health insurance cheaper for millions of Americans. They also want a repeal of Trump's cuts to Medicaid, which is a government-funded health care program used by millions of disabled, elderly, and low-income Americans. 

The government is actively working to fix this problem. They did try to pass a stopgap bill, which is designed to prevent a government shutdown. It was looking hopeful, passing through the house and both chambers, but ultimately did not get cleared by the Senate. As of now, both parties cannot seem to come to an agreement, so the government is heading into its eighth day of shutdown.

This has had a serious effect on government workers. All of the “non-essential” workers have been temporarily laid off, whilst workers that are considered essential are still working, just without pay. The essential workers include many different categories. Starting with active duty military and national guard forces, federal law enforcement and public safety, such as the FBI, federal prison guards, ICE agents, the Secret Service, and many more. TSA also has to work without pay, as well as air traffic controllers. Disaster response and medical staff, and also postal employees, all still have to work. 

The public's opinion on this issue is very mixed, some because they don't know who to blame, and others align with their political party's stance on this issue. Since both parties are publicly bashing one another in the press, it creates very black and white opinions on the matter. Republicans blame the Democrats for holding them hostage by not being cooperative and Democrats blame Republicans for not being reasonable with the budget ideas. But it has been found through numerous polls that around 39% of people blame Trump and the Republican Party, 30% blame the Democrats, and 31% say they blame both sides equally.