The most effective response to a government shutdown is to pass a budget to fund the government. If this seems like an easy answer, that is because it is. Passing a budget is a routine, annual part of Congress’ job. The deadline never changes, and the stakes of a shutdown are always clear. In practice this is never such a simple process. Passing a budget involves intense negotiations in Congress and commonly ends with a compromise or a reduction in federal spending. It is almost never resolved by the October 1 deadline and is instead patched by continuing resolutions until an agreement can be reached. While these temporary fixes are by no means ideal, they have worked in the past with few exceptions.
Regarding the current budget crisis, we believe in reasonable, common sense negotiations to reach an agreement, and do not have a problem with Senate Democrats and Obama reaching a compromise on spending with House Republicans. However, we do not believe budget negotiations should be held hostage as a means to force major changes in government policy as is currently happening. As the budget deadline looms, House Republicans have only passed budget deals that stood no chance in passing through either the Senate or the White House.
The House’s initial proposal would have completely defunded the Affordable Care Act (ACA), while the second proposal sought a one-year delay of the ACA and a repeal of the medical device tax. The ACA is a key piece of legislation from President Obama’s first term that in our view will help millions of Americans. The Affordable Care Act was a part of Obama’s 2008 platform, was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2012, was reaffirmed by the popular vote in 2012 when the American people re-elected President Obama, and has withstood over forty Republican attempts to defund it over the past three years. Simply put, it is now part of national policy and deserves implementation.
Looking forward, here is what needs to happen: the Republican-led House needs to realize that preventing the furlough of hundreds of thousands of government employees and the shutdown of non-essential agencies is more important than attempting to destroy the ACA. President Obama and the Senate should not bend to the desires of the radical members of the House on this issue, as this will only encourage them to use these high-risk, irresponsible tactics again in the future. We are not looking for a budget deal that only benefits the Democratic Party, we just want to return to the good old days of temporary spending measures and continuing resolutions. Yes, the negotiations were messy and they were far from ideal, but budgets were passed and more importantly, nobody was furloughed in the process.
