Question
What caused the 2018 government shutdown?
Answer
Under the administration of the Republican president, Donald Trump was hit with a government shutdown on January 20, 2018 the first anniversary of his inauguration. The shutdown of the federal government lasted 2 days over the weekend.
Failure to pass a recent funding legislation for government operations, mainly over immigration. If the senate does not come to an agreement by February 8th the next shut down may occur. When a government shutdown occurs nonessential government federal offices and national parks and monuments are temporally closed for the duration of the shutdown. The workers are discontinued from being paid until the issue is fixed.
Many people may speculate that president Trump is to be faulted for the shutdown or others may say that it is just a distraction from other issues the president is facing such as the sexual assault issue he is accused for and the affiliation of Russia in his 2016 election.
Author Andrew Prokop describes the government shut down as a major occurrence that is not as dramatic as it sounds. In 2013, the nonessential offices made up 40 percent of the governments employees. Disturbance to the government may increase the federal spending due to lost labor may are likely to arise. A government shutdown has reportedly reoccurred a total of 18 times in history.
The government is funded by the laws that go through Congress. According to Andrew Prokop, the recent shutdown was occurred because congress failed to pass the government funding for immigration bill. the long-heated dispute between the democrats and republicans over the DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival) finally boiled over. (2018)
According to an article from Politico entitled “Who gets blamed for the shutdown? Here’s what the polls say” (Shepard, et al.), a statistical vote was taken by voters, 41% blaming the Republican congress while 36% Democrats in congress. From this article it is seen that Republicans are against the DACA immigration bill.
Is this bill worth shutting down the for? “Forty-two percent of voters say it’s not worth shutting down the government to pass a DACA bill – the same percentage who say it is worth it.” (Shepard, et al. 2018).
This source provides many statistical data on different aspects of the shutdown and who voters think is to blame. However, the source does not state why voters are playing the blame game on the Democrats or Republicans.
An article from The Atlantic entitled “The Real Reasons Why the Government Shutdown” (Berman). Berman pointed out that each party was point the fingers at each other. The Democrats believe that the Republicans are to be held responsible as president Trump has repeatedly backed out of agreements, which he made privately, that would have resolved the issue. However, The Republicans blamed the Democrats for shutting down the government over the request of an immigration bill. At the end of it all, according to Russel Berman, one of things must happen. Trump would have to make a deal with the Democrats and stick to it or agree to whatever plan congress leaders devise. (Berman 2018)
Work Cited
Prokop, Andrew. “7 questions about the government shutdown you were too embarrassed to ask.” Vox, Vox, 22 Jan. 2018, www.vox.com/2018/1/22/16918686/government-shutdown-why-what.
Shepard, Steven, et al. “Who gets blamed for the shutdown? Here’s what the polls say.” POLITICO, 21 Jan. 2018, www.politico.com/story/2018/01/21/government-shutdown-2018-polls-blame-353728.
Berman, Russell. “The Real Reasons Why the Government Shut Down.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 20 Jan. 2018, www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/01/the-real-reasons-why-the-government-shut-down/551027/.
Resh, W., Ahn, Y., & Moynihan, D., 2023. Populism and administrative dysfunction: The impact of U. S. government shutdowns on personnel and policy implementation. Governance. https://doi.org/10.1111/gove.12823.
Gosliner, W., Chen, W., Johnson, C., Esparza, E., Price, N., Hecht, K., & Ritchie, L., 2020. Participants’ Experiences of the 2018–2019 Government Shutdown and Subsequent Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Benefit Disruption Can Inform Future Policy. Nutrients, 12. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12061867.
