What will happen during the government shutdown
By: Andy Scrivener
Because of the members of Congress have different opinions of the Affordable Care Act and Syria, the USA entered a government shutdown on Midnight October 1, 2013. A government shutdown will usually last a few days, and during that time, most government employees not considered essential to the government will be dismissed from work without pay.
Many of the government services will still be operational, such as the Postal Service, the Coast Guard, and the Military. However, many other government services will shut down, such as the National Park Service, NASA, and the Library of Congress, and its employees will be furloughed. At the moment, around 800,000 government civilian employees are furloughed in the United States, and they won’t be back in business until Congress has made a decision.
As of typing this, Congress still hasn’t agreed on who to blame for the shutdown, Republicans blame Obama and Obama blames the Republicans, and Obama states that “he won’t cave in to the Republicans.”
The shortest government shutdown in American history lasted 1 day in 1982 under president Reagan and the longest lasted 21 days in 1995-1996 under president Clinton. The shortest shutdown was caused by passing a bill late and the longest was caused by Clinton when he refused a proposal Republicans asked for a budget for the Congressional Budget Office rather than Clinton’s Office of Management. The shortest shutdown had almost no effect on the US or Reagan, while the longest lowered Clinton’s public opinion ratings to about 40%.
As of October 3, the Senate still haven’t decided whether keep funding Obamacare or whether to stop funding it. Perhaps (and hopefully) by the time you are reading this, the government is functioning properly and the shutdown has ended.
Category: News
