Despite the recovery that Congress seems to be making in response to the government’s shutdown on October of 2013, it will definitely take some time to get back to where the government was before the shutdown when the economy’s GDP was rising at a comfortable 2.8 percent rate. Now because of the shutdown, the government has lost 24 billion dollars along with the trillions that they owe already.
For those who are absolutely clueless about the events that caused the country’s halt, the government’s shutdown resulted mainly from the House and Senate bickering over how to fund government agencies. Unable to pass an agreeable bill in the time allotted, the government halted, and thus we had a shutdown.
Almost a month later on Oct. 17, President Obama passed a new bill that partially solved the problem, making the government functional again through raising the debt limit. However, that doesn’t solve the problem. All that did was buy Congress more time, and sadly it will only be a matter of time before another shutdown occurs.
With the government out of commission for the first half of October, around 800,000 people were forced to stay home. However, after Pentagon workers were allowed to return the number decreased to around 350,000. Nonetheless, many people around the country were affected by this shutdown, both government workers and people from organizations like NASA, the EPA, and even workers at the National Zoo.
The government is running again, and that’s a good thing for those workers who can now receive their proper income, but it will lose steam again if Congress continues to debate like this. Obama’s debt extension only lasts until February, and Congress’ agreement only lasts until mid-January. It’s more than likely that there will be more arguments about the increase in debt, causing more of a dilemma.
Despite all of this government chaos, most of the American people are just happy to be back at work and making money for their families again. When asked about it, IT specialist Teresa Sparks replies that she is just happy to have her job back regardless of what issues the government has at the moment, although she is still concerned for the future.
Like Sparks, other workers have had to deal with extra frustrations upon returning to their jobs because of deadlines that needed to be met during the shutdown. However, these are only minor annoyances compared to not having a job at all. Mr. Pruitt, the Inspector General of the Department of Justice, believes that despite workers’ annoyance with Congress, everything is running smoothly, and he is thankful for having his job back.
Most teenagers saw the shutdown as an embarrassment on the government’s part and feel that the government has a long way to go before complete recovery can be made. Those with parents in the government had even more of a bone to pick with Congress since now their parent’s job is in such a fragile state. Although most students and kids don’t have enough of a political knowledge to know what’s going on in the government, they can clearly see that it’s in disarray.
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