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“A Decade Later: House Shutdown Endlessly Perpetuates

It has been over a decade since the first government shutdown of the 21st century, but the cycle of government shutdowns appears destined to continue into the indefinite future. The most recent government shutdown, the House shutdown, began in December 2018 and as of January 2019 is still ongoing. What began as a disagreement between the House and the Senate over a proposed Border Wall quickly spiraled out of control. The House shutdown lasted for the longest duration in modern times, with a full month and a half of government services being suspended. As the debate between the two sides of Congress stalled, so too did many essential government services, such as passport services, federal employee compensation, and food inspection. Fortunately, the significant effects of the House Shutdown were not felt by all aspects of American life. In particular, Social Security payments and veterans health benefits were not affected, as they are not funded by Congressional approval. Still, the shutdown has been disruptive on a wide ranging scale. Over 800,000 federal workers were put on unpaid leave, with no end in sight. Many contractors, who may not qualify for back pay, were even worse off financially. The impacts were not just in terms of finances, either. The ripple effects of the shutdown had a large impact on a variety of different industries, from tourism to food security. Numerous pauses on regulatory processes deprived a myriad of businesses of the chance to move forward in their activities. The effects of the House Shutdown have been vast and wide ranging. The amount of Republican and Democratic politicians locked in an ongoing debate intermittently declared as an emergency clearly shows the inability of the two-party system’s ability to reach an agreement. It appears as though this disagreement has stagnated the United States government. Until there is a compromise between the two sides of Congress, the economic woes of the government shutdown are likely to linger throughout the country for years to come.