Uncertainty surrounds government shutdown
One Waynesburg professor remembers the people’s response to the government shutdown in 1995.
It wasn’t pretty.
“I remember people being furious that they could not get into the Capitol, could not get into the Washington Monument, into all the museums and into some of the parks,” said Dr. Larry Stratton, director of the Stover Center for Constitutional Studies and Moral Leadership at Waynesburg University. “That gets on people’s nerves.”
After another government shutdown was declared on Oct. 1, Americans face a similar scenario.
The national museums in Washington, D.C. are not operating and federal loans and passport applications will not be processed during this shutdown.
“They turn off the things you notice,” said Dr. Richard Waddel, professor of political science. “But if you’re not visiting Washington, by and large it takes a very long time for anything else to trickle through.”
While the effects of this shutdown are not very visible on the local or state level, any number of federal employees who hold jobs deemed “non-essential” may lose income during the government shutdown. Some families of Waynesburg University students are already seeing the consequences of this.
Jon St. Laurent, sophomore communication major, said his parents’ jobs as Social Security administrators are furloughed. As Social Security administrators, they field applications for Social Security and welfare; however, the government has shut down these operations because it isn’t adding anyone onto benefit programs during the shutdown, meaning St. Laurent’s parents do not have a reason to work.
“I can’t disagree with the logic; these jobs aren’t something the government needs to function on a daily basis,” said St. Laurent. “It’s just really frustrating because what the government is arguing on has nothing to do with federal employees being paid. Those who are doing the arguing, though, are still getting paid.”
This is the first time St. Laurent’s family has experienced direct backlash from federal government affairs, but he stated the federal government has warned that their jobs might be suspended several times since 2009.
While families like St. Laurent’s are affected by this shutdown, local families with primary jobs in the private sector will not see repercussions from the situation unless it lasts long enough to affect the economy, according to Waddel.
“We’ll probably see more repercussions if they don’t reach an agreement on the debt limit, which expires on Oct. 17,” said Waddel. “At that point, you might see things like Social Security checks being delayed. If we get toward the end of the semester, we’ll be talking about Pell Grants and if they can be processed.”
Stratton agreed with Waddel and said that a longer shutdown will create more fiscal issues on the local level.
“If it lasts more than a week, it is really into uncharted territory,” said Stratton. “Does it increase economic uncertainty is really this issue.”
While Stratton said both sides are waiting for the other to blink on the matter and come to a compromise, he believes the government is acting on a political stage in a possible attempt to gain attention and support.
“Both sides of the political debate are, I think, hoping to position themselves for next year’s Congressional elections,” said Stratton. “It is a political spectacle.”
Waddel believes American citizens should pay close attention to this political stage in order to learn from the government’s mistakes and develop an informed opinion on politicians who will be up for reelection in the 2014 electoral cycle.
This government shutdown is the result of a disagreement between the House of Representatives and the Senate. When the new fiscal year began on Oct. 1, both parties were expected to approve a budget.
The Republican-led House approved legislation that would defund most of the Affordable Care Act, while running the government through Dec. 15. Both the Senate and the President promised the bill would not make it into law and the bill was sent back to the House without the portion defunding the Affordable Care Act. The House and Senate went back and forth until the deadline was reached.