The United States: SHUT DOWN
Though politics may not be your favourite subject after the recent election, I completely understand why many of you would want to just stay away from what is going on in our capital but it is always important to stay informed on what is happening currently in Washington D.C. and how it impacts all of us.
According to Investopedia, a government shutdown is the closure of non essential offices in the government due to lack of approval on the federal budget for the upcoming fiscal year, doing so the shutdown remains in effect until a compromise is reached and the bill is passed. While government shutdowns do not seem that impactful, the reason why this one stands out is because this is the second government shutdown within two weeks caused by Rand Paul.
On Friday 12:01 P.M eastern standard time, the government shut down for the second time within three weeks. Let’s break it down, the reasoning for this is because Congress is trying to pass a massive budget deal. They are saying that this deal will increase investments in domestic and the military by $300 billion over the next two years. This is because the deal lifts the funding for domestic programs by $128 billion and hikes defense budgets by $160 billion.
Minority leader Chuck Schumer says, “ The budget deal is a win for the American people”. Now this is all confusing and frustrating but since we live in a democracy the term “Majority Rules” still applies to even a Senate passing a bill. When a Senate passes a bill it doesn’t take 60 votes to pass the bill ; it takes the majority of the senators voting.
Senator Rand Paul is the sole reason why it took over three weeks to get this bill to pass. He filibustered the agreement to prevent the Senate from voting on the new proposal before midnight deadline, angry over the plan to add hundreds of billions of dollars in federal spending in the new few years. Meanwhile house Democrats almost had their shutdown over DACA, but that's another story entirely. Eventually the Senate did vote and the spending plan passed with 71 votes a little before 2 a.m. on Friday.
Understanding our government is frustrating, but according to Jefferson “to be a good citizen is to be informed”.
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