Thousands of people not having to go to work, the sounds of bickering have faded away; an eerie fog descends over Washington DC. The government has shut down, and slowly by slowly, I’m seeing the repercussions of this drastic decision.
For those who don’t really know much about this topic, myself included, the government has one key role described in the Constitution, and that is to pass spending bills that fund the government, I don’t want to bore you with anymore Civics details, but sorry, I do. When the government doesn’t do their main job most government agencies and the like stop working, as they can’t get money. Although some agencies stop working, Social Security, air traffic control, and active military pay will continue to get money. The best part is that even though Congress doesn’t have to work anymore, they still get paid.
The main reason as to why the government shutdown is that House Republicans have wanted to enact a new spending bill that would defund or chip away at ObamaCare. Senate Democrats on the other hand feel otherwise and the bickering starts. For those of you, most likely the same people that don’t know about the government shutting down, ObamaCare in a sense is aimed at reforming the American health care system. It focuses on providing affordable health care, improving the quality of health care, and regulating the health insurance industry. There are many repercussions that ObamaCare would enact, here are some rules/changes to the current scheme of things: Unless you make over $200,000 per individual or $250,000 as a family or small business you are exempt from almost all ObamaCare levies (taxes), everyone is required to have health insurance no matter how healthy you are or even if you want health care, and it would provide Medicaid to over 15 million low income Americans.
Why is this important to discuss about in the House? It seems great to be able to provide health insurance to many people and allow everyone to have a backup as medical costs are high but it will be a lot of work. Well, number one, it costs a lot of money, money that we don’t have as a whole, just think about our trillions of dollars in debt, and two, ObamaCare relies on taking money from the middle class to be able to pay for those that lack the income necessary to pay for healthcare themselves.
Oh and all those monuments and museums that cover D.C? They are all closed, you have to feel bad for those vacationers from California that have finally arrived and are forced to see the horrific “Closed” sign. I pray for you Californians and all the gas money that you’ve spent just to see the emptiness of your capital, so patriotic. Yes the mail will still come and the military will continue to protect us but there still are many things that will be changing to the country as a whole.
What do I think about all this? Well for a start it annoys me to think about what happens in Congress. I feel like nothing gets done. I know they discuss super important matters about the country but it seems like no one can agree. They always have to extend a deadline or bicker about each other and how they are crazy and hate the country; it’s not necessary at all. For us students we can bask in the glory of having less traffic when going to school, I know that’s what I like about this, maybe I’m the only one, but I cannot stress enough that having the government shutdown is not ideal and shouldn’t be happening in the first place.
If you want more information about the shutdown, a link is below:
http://www.cnn.com/2013/09/30/politics/government-shutdown-up-to-speed/index.html