No way through: Government shutdown continues

Having shut down the government for the first time in 6 years on October 1st, it has now become the 3rd longest in American history at the time of writing. With no end in sight, President Trump may have a new record to add to his administrations ‘achievements’, including the first to be led by a convicted felon.

For our readers who are less familiar with how our neighbours across the pond do things, the American government is once again fighting on how to spend money. Congress must pass detailed plans on exactly where to allocate money in the budget, such as military spending, foreign aid projects, down to wages for federal workers. Passing any budget bill requires cross party support, which is where the problem lies. Normally, this requires negotiation and compromise from both sides. Negotiations broke down and no compromise was reached over the Democrats wanting to reverse Trump’s cuts to Medicaid and the addition of plans to make health insurance cheaper for low-income households. This contrasts with the Trump administration’s current mission to cut federal costs. With no budget passed, the government essentially has no money, which means federal workers are placed on furlough without their wages, and services such as NASA and federal museums lose their funding.

If the government stays closed indefinitely, schools and medical programmes may be forced to close without federal funding. Workers from major federal departments such as disease prevention have also been placed on furlough, disrupting vital research.

The consequences of shutdowns are far reaching. With midterms on the horizon, the Trump administration may look weak for not being able to resolve the dispute quickly and indeed if they continue to let the shutdown persist. Rather differently to his predecessors, Trump has used the federal propaganda machine to turn the shutdown on his rivals, with the official White House website declaring that ‘Democrats have shut down the government’ and that ‘Americans don’t agree with Democrat actions’. This is clearly an attempt to deflect any sort of blame onto the opposition, though it hasn’t been working. Americans broadly blame both parties equally for the lack of compromise over the budget, despite both parties’ efforts to pin it on the other. The Republicans claim it’s the Democrats want to sow chaos, the Democrats claim the Republicans don’t care about American’s access to healthcare. With both sides refusing to budge, uncertainty grows about both parties’ fitness to govern at the midterm elections.

As well as political consequences, shutdowns have a real impact on the lives of everyday Americans. All non-essential federal workers are automatically placed on furlough without pay, with that total currently standing at about 1.4 million. The Trump administration are giving signs that they see this shutdown as another way to cut costs, with Trump declaring that the White House were looking at cutting workers and to not give workers the back pay they were owed during the shutdown saying that some workers ‘don’t deserve to be taken care of’.

Many public institutions funded by the government have also had to close with National Parks such as Alcatraz Island closing to visitors, and the Smithsonian Museum collection announcing the closure of 21 of their locations. Thousands of flights have been cancelled across the USA causing disruption as flight traffic controllers call in sick to protest their work without pay. If the government stays closed indefinitely, schools and medical programmes may be forced to close without federal funding. Workers from major federal departments such as disease prevention have also been placed on furlough, disrupting vital research.

One would have to agree that reform is necessary when American governance can so easily grind to a halt. It would also prevent the wastage of up to $3 billion of federal funds on petty party disagreements. The constitution grants ‘powers of the purse’ to Congress, so there is no way for the executive to spend without it, so what reforms can be made to prevent shutdown?

All eyes should remain on those workers left scrambling trying to make ends meet as a result of petty politicians’ squabbles.

One solution is to strengthen the budget committees to give them more powers to help pass through budgets so that even if there are grievances over the allocation of funds, the government doesn’t completely grind to a halt. Another common suggestion is the raising of the debt ceiling. This is a mechanism that limits the amount of money the federal government can borrow to fund spending commitments such as benefits and Medicaid. By raising the debt ceiling, it would allow the government to fund these vital services even if the government were to shut down. The issue with talking about reform though, is that it requires cross party collaboration which when looking at the current crisis, is something unlikely to happen in the near future.

Though disagreement over spending and shutdown is nothing new to American politics, this administration's strategy to simply let it happen is something new and rather frightening. Trump sees this shutdown as an opportunity to continue to cut expenditure and perhaps claim that even more federal workers are a waste and remove countless workers and departments, as currently the government is only running on essential services, with no move being made by the administration to change that. All eyes should remain on those workers left scrambling trying to make ends meet as a result of petty politicians’ squabbles.

By Cara Hinsliff

Image: Jonah Elkowitz/Shutterstock