U.S. Government Was Facing a Shutdown

On April 9, 8:00 p.m. local time, Barack Obama and Congressional leaders from two parties reach an “historic agreement” that agreed to cut $38 billion in federal spending and to extend the deadline for several days in order to arrange for a temporary budget, which would once again avoid the government closing for the first time in 15 years.

In fact, the U.S. House of Representatives discussed the interim financial arrangement until the morning of March 9. The U.S. government was theoretically shut down for a little while. Fortunately, it did not create a substantial impact because it happened when people were sleeping.

In the U.S. capital of Washington, D.C., where the cherry blossoms are blooming, people can breathe a sigh of relief. If the government closed, the annual Cherry Blossom Festival Parade would have been canceled because the National Park Service cannot afford it. Without Congressional budget authorization, the U.S. federal government would have temporarily failed to pay. Although this would not threaten important issues like military pay and air transportation management, public services like the National Park Services would have been significantly affected by a government shutdown.

Now it’s April 2011, and the Obama administration’s 2011 budget still has not been passed by Congress, so the operation of the federal government has to rely on the temporary budget-allocated funds. The Republicans seized on the issue of the federal budget deficit after the party regained control of the House of Representatives in order to consolidate support from voters. On March 17, the U.S. Congress passed an interim budget resolution that will expire on April 8. The Obama administration escaped from the danger of a “shutdown.”

Since then, Democrats and Republicans have had a more serious dispute on the issue of cutting government spending. In the beginning, the Republican Party planned to cut $61 billion in expenses for the remaining seven months of this year, which is $500 billion more than that of the Democratic plan. With the April 8 deadline coming, the gap in budget cutting between the two parties has gradually decreased. The Democratic Party advocated for cutting $33 billion, while the Republican party called for a $40 billion reduction. There is a $7 billion gap between two proposals, which is the equivalent of federal government spending for 17 hours and a tiny part of the 2011 fiscal year budget. The two parties did not reach common ground until the very last minute. The Senate majority leader, Democrat Harry Reid, criticized some suggestions proposed by the Republican party, like reducing the management area of the EPA, eliminating the eligibility of abortion as a health care expenditure and cutting health care spending on low-income women. Reid said that it was a shame that the Republicans took the risk of closing the government in order to implement radical social policies. The speaker of the House, Republican John Boehner, fought back. He said that the argument between two parties was whether government spending should be cut.

According to the statistics generated by the U.S. media, a government shutdown would cost taxpayers a million dollars a day. In fact, Obama and Speaker Boehner both agreed that the impact on U.S. economic recovery that could be caused by a government shutdown is big enough to exclude the possibility of a government shutdown. As to why a shutdown almost happened, maybe both parties were concerned about losing or gaining. As stated by The Wall Street Journal, the confrontation of the two parties is more likely show who is more manly in politics in front of voters.

In the meantime, some public opinions pointed out that more serious conditions might occur in Washington, D.C. After all, the Republican budget act meant to change the whole arrangement of federal spending, but as for the issue of limitations on the national debt, the Obama administration will face another vote in Congress.