Shutdown Shenanigans

John Monday

Our student body president comments on the actions of the higher government.

The late Ronald Reagan once said, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”  This is a real side splitter from the old Gipper.

But enough about Bonzo, my aversion toward a president that I didn’t live through will be saved for my Black Flag music parties.

The point I’m trying to make is that this conservative viewpoint, that government is ineffective and in fact evil, has apparently never been stronger than today. So much so that the GOP decided to shut it down! This is of course a joke; the government shutdown in reality is just another ill-fated attempt by Republicans to defund the Affordable Care Act. This coming after the fact that Obamacare has been passed democratically, not once, but twice inadvertently in the presidential election in 2012 and in the congressional elections.

This shutdown surprised much of the American public and media, being that the US has not had a shutdown since 1996.  Some people were confused about what the shutdown was even for, and others wondered what a shutdown entailed. Well, the shutdown, is for the debt ceiling – but more importantly, as mentioned before, for the Affordable Care Act and the GOP’s never ending fight against it.  What a shutdown entails, however, is a bigger question.

The shutdown has had tremendous impact already and more are sure to come. According to the Washington Post, there are a variety of negative effects: more than 2 million federal workers will see their paychecks delayed and 800,000 of them may not get repaid, millions of veterans will not see the money guaranteed in benefits, the CDC will halt its flu programs just as the flu season gets under way, food safety programs by the FDA operations are going to cease, financing for small businesses will be hampered, national parks have closed and the tourist trade has taken a hit, Head Start programs will slowly start closing, disability benefits could be interrupted, and finally the NIH (National Institutes of Health) will have to turn away 200 patients each week, including kids with cancer.

The point of all of this is that government is involved in a lot of things; a lot of things that help people and make the country run effectively, and because of the shutdown, these beneficial programs and workers will be forced to stop doing the work which is so necessary.

However, this is not the prevailing view at America’s favorite source of misinformation, Fox News. So far, the FNC has called this shutdown a “slimdown” and blamed it on Democrats and Obama. This is a farce considering the actual effects of the shutdown, and the fact that the Republicans are 100% responsible for it.  Is it not telling that the anti-government party is the root cause of a government shutdown?

The government shutdown is not the main goal, but Republicans seem to have given up on caring about the well-being of the people. The idea of governing has become secondary to being contrarian to Obama and the democrats. We used to be the can-do nation, but now we are the nation of partisan politics and ineffective government. We once went to the moon, but now NASA is being furloughed and funding is being cut.

The Republicans need to accept that government and its programs are here to stay and so is Obamacare. Government is not a bad thing; in fact, it can be a source of great progress and stability. There is something wrong when the entire government shuts down, and the main concern for Republicans is getting senior veterans in to visit a monument. There needs to be some change in this political spectrum. There is a difference between limited government and insanity. For republicans to be taken seriously they need to start living in reality, that the US government is a large power that can do amazing good if given the opportunity to succeed, but while Republicans hold it hostage, all the people can do is sit back and suffer.

John Boehner said recently that this shutdown was not some “damn game”, but the Republicans have done everything in their power to make it a political game, in which the public will always be the loser.

We have a brotherhood here at Malvern. It is our calling card. It is something that should be applied to the United States. When one group puts another group in harms way based on some petty political will, it affects the disenfranchised and the poor and the meek. The world would be a much better place if this brotherhood of man was extended beyond Warren Ave and the well being of every person was taken into account. Whether Republicans like it or not, we are all in this together, and no amount of political posturing will take that away. So lets reinstate a government. shall we?

It has come to my intention that the government has been reinstated thus making this article a bit irrelevant, but to quote my favorite band Icona Pop, “I don’t care, I love it.” That being said I am still a bit upset. THANKS OBAMA, FOR RUINING SOMETHING ELSE !