But it’s less of a matter of should, and it’s more of a matter of could. For the sake of the 2 million government workers who would be affected by another government shutdown, it’s clear that politicians should agree on federal funding. Starting in December 2018, it lasted for 35 days during the Trump administration and reduced the country’s economic growth by $3 billion. The last government shutdown was the longest shutdown in history.
Who knows if the official spending bill will get approved by the new deadline of March 11 that Congress has established for themselves?Ĭongressional gridlock and party polarization can easily cause the country to fall into a government shutdown, an experience we know all too well. As a result, months and months of temporary spending bills have been passed, with no clear end in sight. The formal deadline to pass spending legislation was September 2021, but due to divisions in the Senate between Republicans and Democrats, neither side has been able to agree on the allocation of funding. But until then, I need to be satisfied with GRIDLOCK.Congress recently passed a short-term spending bill to narrowly avoid entering a government shutdown. Would I'd rather have appropriations bills passed and signed into law that will cut spending and reduce the size of government? Absolutely. That means Congress will probably pass another continuing resolution (CR) that the president will sign into law that will keep the government functioning at about the current spending level. It is unlikely that the Republican-controlled House and Democrat-controlled Senate will be able to reach agreement on this year’s spending (appropriations bills) so we will have GRIDLOCK just before the end of the fiscal year, which is September 30.
Gridlock government how to#
The politicians who hold these views control different parts of the government and cannot reach agreement on how to go forward, thus GRIDLOCK. Some in Washington want to spend and tax more and create more government programs and some in Washington want to spend much less, reduce the size of government, and return the money to the taxpayers, allowing them to spend their money as they see fit. If I was to give you a dollar every second, it would take 32,000 years for me to reach $1 trillion. Let me remind you dear reader how much just $1 trillion dollars is. In any case, I think it is time to argue that gridlock can be good, particularly when the nation is dealing with big spenders in Congress, a president who continues to reject any further spending cuts, a budget that is hovering around $3.5 trillion, the deficit at about $845 billion, and the debt clock ticking away – now at $16.8 trillion and climbing. Hmmm, doesn’t this mean that the president should cede to Congress on policy? (Maybe the public cannot reach agreement either.) But in the same poll, some 48% of the participants believe that Congress should take the lead in setting policy and only 38% believe the president should. The Wall Street Journal states, “Rising frustration over partisan gridlock in Washington has damaged faith both in President Barack Obama and lawmakers on Capitol Hill, with disapproval of Congress hitting an all-time high.” According the results, some 56% of the adults polled believe that Congress has been too inflexible in dealing with the president. Last week, the NBC News and the WSJ released a poll on Congress’s and President Obama’s approval ratings.