The sky is falling, the sky is falling, oh what are we to do?
Don’t you just hate it when the government shuts down? Oh, you’ve never noticed? That makes sense. For an organization so influential in how our country runs, we sure do seem to do just fine without it, at least for brief periods. Government shutdowns are a seemingly ever-present threat thrown from one politician to another when our two dominant political parties get in a spat over federal funding. So fun, so interesting. But here are the key questions: what is a government shutdown, why does it happen, and who does it affect?
What are we even talking about?
Before we get into the fun specifics of government shutdowns, let’s discuss the basics. What is a government shutdown?
A government shutdown, at least in our country, involves restricting or pausing agency activities and nonessential government activities, suspending nonessential federal employees and only running the bare necessities. As you can imagine, federal employees don’t exactly love it when this threat to their livelihood gets tossed back and forth with the same weight as “I’m gonna tell mom!” Well, maybe even less. But don’t worry, we’ll get back to these workers shortly.
Why is this happening?
Our government is run by two large organizations that bicker like the elementary schoolers when they’re playing dragons on the playground. When these two entities cannot reach an agreement on government spending, the money cannot be spent, at least not in its entirety.
So essentially, no bipartisanship, no money. An all-American issue.
Who does it impact?
This event technically impacts everybody, not that most of us will feel the impact immediately. That is, unless you work for the government. Even the employees deemed mandatory, who are allowed to continue working, are not currently receiving pay for it.
That’s right, the police force, military and air traffic controllers are currently working for the low, low price of free ninety-nine while the very people that put them in this position receive their regular pay. And what is the response of the temper-tantrum throwing legislators? “Well, they get back pay”. Unfortunately, tomorrow’s pay doesn’t help yesterday’s rent, especially when this take comes from someone who is guaranteed pay even if they can’t do the basic roles of their job at the expense of everyone else.
So what?
Despite efforts on both sides of the political aisle to point fingers aggressively at one another, this is a bipartisan issue. A desire to be paid and ensure that others are paid doesn’t know a political alignment. This is a sparkling case of people versus politicians, not republicans versus democrats, and people need to see that.
