Now, I am not American and don't really follow the news, but to me it looks like a 'Government shutdown' is averted every few months. Is this normal?
this post was submitted on 24 Mar 2024
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It happens whenever Republicans control one house of Congress and there is a Democrat President. It's an obstruction tactic based on the lie that they care about increasing the national debt. That concern disappears when a Republican is President (Trump increased debt by $7 trillion).
The longest shutdown we’ve ever had started when the GOP controlled the House AND the Senate AND Trump was president.
Not American so forgive my forgetfulness but it was because Trump was trying to fund his wall or something dumb right?
Edit: I read the attached article. It looks like it was:
The shutdown stemmed from an impasse over Trump's demand for $5.7 billion in federal funds for a U.S.–Mexico border wall.[5][6][7] In December 2018, the Senate unanimously passed an appropriations bill without wall funding, and the bill appeared likely to be approved by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives and Trump. After Trump faced heavy criticism from some right-wing media outlets and pundits for appearing to back down on his campaign promise to "build the wall", he announced that he would not sign any appropriations bill that did not fund its construction. As a result, the House passed a stopgap bill with funding for the wall, but it was blocked in the Senate by the threat of a Democratic filibuster.
The Trump presidency was such a shit show.
That's because Republicans are incapable of governing, and can't think of anything new so they repeat things they did in the past regardless of context.
No. The Republicans use it as a cudgel to get the spending cuts and other harmful legislation passed.
It always backfires spectacularly on them. They've lost every election since 2018 because of it and people waking up to the fact they are women hating racists too.
It happens all the time in America, which is not normal and it feels like the government's on its last legs
At this point, it is normal, but definitely shouldn't be. We keep "averting" shutdowns mainly because Republicans don't know how to govern. But also because all congresspersons don't know how to cooperate and get over their petty bullshit.
No, it’s a catastrophic failure on our government’s part. We’ve had government shutdowns before, it was a tactic of our right wing party but now they’ve been passing temporary budgets this past year and it’s just a complete shitshow
Every October we start a "fiscal year" and because we don't plan ahead we do one year at a time.
So October 1st every year a new budget takes effect.
But the House. Senate, and president all need to agree on a single budget, which often includes random shit.
Like, this one bans aid to UNRW till 2025 based on Israeli Intel we know was false and obtained via torture. But it's in this budget.
So unless the same party controlls all three of those parts of our government, they can never agree on a budget, which means constantly passing "interm budgets" so that the government keeps running.
Sometimes those interm budgets aren't enough and leads to partial government shutdowns. In 2019 the Coast Guard went a month without pay checks. So sometimes it's a big deal. Other times people are just forced to take paid leave because it's paid out of a different allocation.
But it makes it even harder for agencies to plan, the more long term you can plan, the better. But these short term continuing resolutions essentially make agencies operate "paycheck to paycheck".
So...
Is this normal?
Unfortunately, yeah. It has been for a while now. But we do get a few years here and there where we easily pass the budget on 10/1.
You'll probably start hearing about the next one coming Sept 1st for the pregame.
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/09/13/congress-has-long-struggled-to-pass-spending-bills-on-time/ seems to have a pretty decent grasp of the history warts mostly included if anyone wants more info.
The current process was established in 1974. Not everyone gets furloughed for every shutdown, and it's worth noting the government is the biggest employer in the country iirc & manages social security benefits, and taxes don't stop while the shutdown happens. Basically it's a huge mess and the '74 law needs serious reform to require Congress to compromise on a budget again as a requirement of their role.
Basically it’s a huge mess
Ridiculously expensive as well.
Sometimes we'll hear about "they'll get paid later, it's fine".
But to push all those payments out ASAP at a moments notice it costs millions in overtime. Just burning money for no reason.
We need to have general budgets for like a decade at a time. Build in adjustments for inflation, but if anything major changes during that decade, just have a process for doing amendments for that shit.
The basic ahit is safe and agencies can be proactive instead of reactive. Hell, require the budget be finalized a year before implementation even.
This shit sucks so bad it's legitimately not hard to think of a better system
Republican antics.
It is the "new normal" yes.
Back in my day, the government wasn't in a constant state of nearly shutting down. Thanks Republicans.
I mean, it's been happening for 30+ years...
The system is flawed but we just keep not fixing it.
Our reprenatastion varies a shit ton for a country that was supposed to be all about representation even though the founders all owned other humans as slaves.
And the wealthiest don't have to spend much to buy one of those politicians who represent a small amount of people with an oversized amount of power. And the people with that oversized power are always going to vote to keep it.
I mean, it's been happening for 30+ years...
Sure, but name one single time where a shutdown was pushed by Democrats.
The issue is that every time the budget comes through, politicians want to use it as a method to get what they want, more so thsb previously. Some far right Republicans were totally fine with having a shutdown. My understanding is that ppl previously, they all agreed a shut down was bad but couldn't figure out how to resolve the issue. Now, some Republicans think it would be great to have a shut down and to intentionally use that threat as a means to get what they want.
But we still don't fix the system when we control the House, Senate, and presidency...
Believe me, I'm all about complaining about the inheirtant flaws of our system. Ignoring shit never works.
But we've had the political numbers to fix shit a couple times, and our only options to vote for besides Republicans just don't fix it.
That tells me we need a higher standard than "not a Republican".
I 100% know it won't be quick or easy, but that's the absolute worst reason to put something off. If it's going to be hard and take a long time, we need to get fucking started.
I agree with all that you're saying but it seems the steps are where we disagree but my steps are: we need to make the current Democrats the new conservative party. This is what I feel is the most realistic way to move forward. Regardless, I still support pushing for a system that supports multiple parties that would ultimately get more progressive legislation pushed, the way to that point is ultimately to keep ensuring Republicans don't win.
The most everything country on earth can’t even fund itself.
Thanks for barely doing your job, government!
This is the best summary I could come up with:
President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a $1.2tn budget bill to keep the US government funded through a fiscal year that began six months ago and to avert a partial shutdown, according to a statement released by the White House.
“The bipartisan funding bill I just signed keeps the government open, invests in the American people, and strengthens our economy and national security,” Biden said in the statement.
It came after funding had expired for government agencies, but the White House sent out a notice shortly after the deadline announcing the Office of Management and Budget had ceased shutdown preparations because there was a high degree of confidence that Congress would pass the legislation and the president would sign it on Saturday.
“Because obligations of federal funds are incurred and tracked on a daily basis, agencies will not shut down and may continue their normal operations,” the White House statement said.
Members had to unanimously agree on fast-tracking the bill’s passage, and some Republicans raised objections to the expedited process, insisting on taking up amendments to the proposal.
Senator Rand Paul, a Republican of Kentucky, attacked congressional leaders for releasing the lengthy bill in the early hours of Thursday morning and holding a final vote one day later.
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