Warning: A Government Shutdown Can Be Hazardous To Your Health

By Curt Thompson


Hostage takers stormed the Capitol this week. The hostages: You and I. The Tea Party wing of Republican representatives in Congress have decided that they like the trappings of democracy and the language of democracy without much actual democracy. They’re determined to kill the Affordable Care Act and are willing to jeopardize the global economy to do it. They’ve shut down the federal government and are threatening to take further hostages by forcing our nation into default hoping the situation becomes so dire that President Obama will have no choice but to give in to their demands.

This shutdown isn’t about negotiating at a table. The President and Democrats went to the table time and time again. Fourteen months spent trying to negotiate with Republican’s on healthcare. Three years of previous budget and debt ceiling debate where Republican refusal to negotiate a compromise cost our nation it’s AAA credit rating. The sequester where the President and Democrats essentially gave the Tea Party the budget numbers they asked for only to be told after the fact it’s not enough. The gutting of the SNAP program wasn’t enough for the hard-line caucus though- now those hyper-partisan districts have hijacked the moderate wing of the party in their quest to kill the ACA. Their compromise to fund the parts of government the Tea Party Republicans aren’t trying to zero out and destroy in a piecemeal approach. Stockholm syndrome isn’t compromise.
Fox News is spinning that the shutdown won’t really hurt anyone. The 800,000 federal workers, families with kids in Head Start, tens of thousands of government contractors, and families receiving WIC must not be part of Fox’s demographic. Economists place the cost to our economy at about 200 million a day.

The right wing tactic of sending mini continuing resolutions only for the programs their cabal supports is a devastating trap to anyone who values having a functioning government. The right wing has been trying for 30 years to dismantle programs from Medicare to SNAP. What makes anyone think they’d later restore funding to these programs once White House tours are up and running again? There is no piecemeal solution to this. If we allow the minority of a minority party to choose which programs get funded and which don’t unilaterally, the results would be disastrous for our economy, for all Americans, for democracy itself. If this is allowed to stand, default and shutdown become the new norm. Future extremists would have a playbook. Find enough votes to cripple the process then extract your pound of flesh.

Fund our government. Pay our nation’s bills. Do your jobs.