There is no US Government shutdown

08/10/2013

Martín Alonso, writer. Author of Ahora, y para siempre, libres. Abraham Lincoln y la Causa de la Unión

 

Over the last few days there have been many views and a lot of alarmed reporting on the mythical US Government shutdown. Most of that commentariat operates in conditions of nearly perfect ignorance aided and abetted by the usual ideological bias. As Daniel Patrick Moynihan famously said, one is entitled to his own opinion, not to his own facts. Here are some of the latter:

 

1. The US Government did not shut down. 83 % of it remains open. Most of the the federal programs (Social Security, Medicare, unemployment benefits, on and on…) are authorized in perpetuity. Essential services carry on in most other areas. Not to mention that every week, come Friday evening, the Federal Government shuts down through Monday morning.

 

2. There have been no less than twenty-seven such “shut-downs” in the last thirty-five years, most conspicuously the twelve times a Democratic majority shut the Government down during the Carter and Reagan Administrations.

 

3. In the lead-up to the “shut-down”, the House (Republican majority) passed a Continuing Resolution - the fiscal year in the US beginning October 1 - funding the whole of the government, excluding “Obamacare” which is due to start with the fiscal year. The Senate (Democratic majority) returned the draft to the House, demanding the funding of the program. The House sent a new bill to the Senate, again funding the entire government, although delaying Obamacare for a year. The Senate once again turned it down. Finally, the Hose drafted a new Continuing Resolution, funding even Obamacare but eliminating the opt-out for members of Congress and their staffers as well as Cabinet members and Heads of Federal Agencies. To no avail.

 

4. The three bills were Continuing Resolutions because, for the last three years, the Senate has refused considering Federal Budget Bills. Thus, the Government works on the basis of the spending authority and allocations established in 2009.

 

5. This debate will soon overlap with the debt limit clash (Us debt now at close to seventeen billion and well over the GDP). It has been argued that if Congress did not raise the limit, the US Government will default. This is patently absurd. The revenue of the Federal Government is ten times larger than the service of principal and interest right now. Were the Federal Government to default, it would be by choice, not by necessity.