The shutdown of the federal government continues into its second week. The shutdown began last Monday when House Republicans voted for a spending bill that delayed the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) for a year. The Democratic Senate would not support the measure. As a result, the government closed its doors. Approximately 800,000 federal employees were sent home without pay. Fortunately for the workers, the House unanimously passed a bill — the Federal Employee Retroactive Pay Fairness Act — that would give the furloughed employees back pay for missed time. President Obama supports the legislation. Despite the bill's passing, many federal workers are still unable to return to work.
The American people have overwhelmingly condemned the shutdown. A CBS News Poll revealed that 72 percent of Americans disapprove of the shutdown. Most Americans blame the GOP for the current debacle. Congressional Republicans have received 44 percent of the blame, while 35 percent of the blame goes to President Obama.
The president challenged the Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) to allow members of Congress to vote on a “clean” resolution. A clean resolution would fund the government without alterations to the Affordable Care Act.
Speaking at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) headquarters in Washington, D.C., the president said, “If Republicans and Speaker Boehner are saying there are not enough votes, then they should prove it.”
The president reiterated that he had a “strong suspicion” that there are enough votes in the House to end the shutdown.
“The reason that Speaker Boehner hasn’t called a vote on it is because he doesn’t apparently want to see the government shutdown end at the moment, unless he’s able to extract concessions that don’t have anything to do with the budget,” President Obama said.
Speaker Boehner has insisted that there are not enough votes to pass a clean resolution. He continues to blame the White House for the impasse.
“The President's refusal to negotiate is hurting our economy and putting our country at risk," Boehner said. Republicans are seeking concessions on the Affordable Care Act.
The Affordable Care Act was signed into law in 2010. It has been aggressively challenged by the GOP ever since. House Republicans have voted over 40 times to repeal the law. Last year, the law was also challenged and upheld in the Supreme Court.
The Affordable Care Act — the main obstacle to agreement — continued as scheduled, on Oct. 1. Americans were able to enroll in the program despite the federal shutdown.
Default looms: could have grave consequences across U.S.
While the federal government remains closed, another shutdown looms in the near future. Congress has until Oct. 17 to raise the debt ceiling or the government will risk defaulting on its debt
Raising the debt ceiling must be passed by Congress. This action allows the U.S. government to borrow more money to meet its obligations. Essentially, it allows the government to pay for the programs that have already been approved by Congress.
The Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) says that the federal government would be unable to cover 32 percent of its bills if Congress fails to raise the debt limit.
The BPC argues that one of two scenarios would occur: prioritization of programs or across the board delays. Prioritization would require choosing which federal programs to fund.
The second option — delayed payments — would allow the government to pay for programs in full, once it has enough money to do so. Programs such as Social Security, food stamps, Medicare and others would experience delays.
Failure to raise the debt ceiling would be a first in U.S. history and would have drastic effects across the globe.
BY MICHAEL SCOTT
scot0459@d.umn.edu