At midnight on October 1st the United States Government shut down. This means that all federally run agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency, Food and Drug Administration, as well as the Department of Education will be furloughed, which means that their workers will not be able to work until after the shut down, or will have to work without pay.
The reason for the shutdown is debated with republicans saying that democrats are refusing to negotiate a new bill with house speaker Mike Johnson saying on social media that “Democrats have officially voted to CLOSE the government. Results: Moms and kids lose WIC nutrition. Veterans lose health care and suicide prevention programs. … The only question now: How long will Chuck Schumer let this pain go on — for his own selfish reasons?” (Williams, Park,Chowdhury,Hammond,Sangal,Maher,Rimmer,Raju,Stracqualursi,Grayer,Powell,Oct 2nd).
Democrats, on the other hand, are particularly blaming Trump for the shutdown with house minority leader, Hakeem Jefries, saying in a joint statement with the Senate majority leader, Chuck Shumer, that Trump wanted to take away healthcare from American people. Trump has not responded to the Shutdown since it has occurred but did say on the Tuesday before that “The last thing we want to do is shut it down, but a lot of good can come down from shutdowns. We can get rid of a lot of things that we didn’t want, and they’d be Democrat things – but they want open borders. They want men playing in women’s sports” (Williams, Park,Chowdhury,Hammond,Sangal,Maher,Rimmer,Raju,Stracqualursi,Grayer,Powell,Oct 2nd).
As of the publication of this article, there have been 10 failed attempts to pass a bill that would increase the financial ceiling with the most recent attempt being on October 16th. The Senate also attempted to pass a bill that would fund the Pentagon but that also failed causing an angry response from Senate majority leader John Thune. He also said that he told Democrats that guarantee a vote for a one year extension for healthcare and tax credits to which Shumer said Thune had not submitted a formal request and that Democrats are “not negotiating in public” (Hubbard,Oct 17).
