Picking Up the Slack

My Thoughts on the Government Shutdown and it’s Looming Effects

Editorial by Aundrea Koger

   The United States of America, once a great superpower, has established itself as the laughing stock of the world as it just now is looking to come out of the 16 day government shutdown.  During the shutdown that closed national parks, furloughed thousands of government workers, and cut funding on many programs, citizens across the country gaped in disbelief at the nerve of our representatives from both parties to sit there and argue, point fingers, and twiddle their thumbs.  I, along with many others, can’t believe their stubbornness that nearly led to what might have been our demise.

   Despite the fact that our representatives in Congress finally decided to compromise and pass a bill to reopen the government and narrowly avoid a default on debt that would essentially stop the government in its tracks completely, we’re not out of the thick of things. The temporary raising of the debt ceiling that was proposed in this bill is only supposed to last until next February, and then what? Will we have another shutdown? Are we going to just keep raising our debt “ceiling” so that we don’t have to confront our true problems? And how exactly are we supposed to cut spending to avoid another shutdown if the two parties can’t even get a proper budget put in place?  Our representatives can all agree on one thing though, and that’s the apparent “need” to avoid the debt default.  Everyone is so afraid of the default, and with good reason because it would wreak havoc on our country’s economy and on the standing of the United States amongst nations of the world, but just think about how much more serious the consequences could become if we continue to put it off.

   Even though the past two and a half weeks were only a partial shutdown, the people of the United States still noticed the effect.  The closing of national parks and other lesser federal agencies was really more a nuisance than a legitimate trouble, but just stop a second and try to picture the ENTIRE government shutting down because we defaulted on our debt.  It wouldn’t be immediate, but basically the government would no longer have any money or any credibility to borrow money from other countries.  There would be zero funding for Social Security, Medicare, Welfare, and even our President’s precious Obamacare, not to mention all the other federal programs that help make our lives as comfortable as they are. And most worrisome of all, there would be little to no funding for our military.  Being the most formidable fighting force in the world, it seems unlikely that our military could ever grow feeble, but when you take away over $600 billion in funds that our armed forces thrive on, according to usgovernmentspending.com, things deteriorate quickly.  And let’s just say, there are nations in the world who would not be afraid to take advantage of our vulnerability.  There’s also no way the government could earn (or borrow) any money outside of taxes, because trade and borrowing capabilities with other countries would be void, which would throw not just the United States, but also the rest of the world, back into a recession. Within the United States, according to nbcnews.com, investments would disappear, banking would freeze, and inflation and unemployment would be rampant.  And there are surely many other side effects that are still unknown to us.

   After learning about the multitude of consequences resulting from our government’s inability to budget and cut spending, there is definitely cause for alarm.  But it’s not too late to start changing things.  So when will this stop? When is someone going to start picking up the slack and actually govern us without the incentive of a crisis looming over our heads. Who will be willing to start dragging us out of the $17 trillion hole that we’ve dug ourselves into. With financial crises occurring more and more often within our federal government, change will have to happen soon. Someone is going to have to step up to the plate and actually face the true problems instead of just kicking them down the road to deal with later. And the common populace is responsible for making that happen.  We have the power to vote in representatives that will play a better part and actually do something productive in Congress without holding a fire underneath them.  Now, I must admit, it is difficult to find a group of politicians who don’t want to keep spending the money we don’t have, but change will have to start somewhere, no matter how adverse, if we want to prevent the United States of America from crumbling.