On September 29, 2013, House Republicans approved a bill into the federal budget that cuts funding dramatically for the Affordable Healthcare Act, otherwise known as Obamacare, the universal healthcare plan that has been a threat to Republicans. After this bill was added to the budget it became nearly impossible for House Democrats to approve it. Democrats and Republicans have been playing hot potato in both the House and Senate ever since, with Americans’ livelihoods at stake. Because the federal budget was not passed by October 1, 2013 at midnight, the government was forced to shut down. This does not mean that we will stoop to anarchy; however, the government (which is the largest employer in America boasting a number almost 2.9 million jobs) had to close a large number of heavily important operations due to the shutdown.

   According to CNN, the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board was shut down and unable to investigate industrial spills/accidents that happened during the shutdown, and current investigations were suspended, including the investigation of the West Fertilizer explosion which killed 15 Texans in April; The U.S. court system continued to operate until October 10, after which all federal course were closed; The Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services sector of the United States Department of Agriculture was partially shut down with food stamps continuing until November 1, 2013, and WIC, a program affecting about 9 million pregnant women and children per month, shut down immediately. Ironically, the Office of Government Ethics proceeded to shut down as of October 1, as well.

  President Barack Obama has said, “The only thing preventing people from going back to work… right now, today, in the next five minutes is that Speaker [of the House] John Boehner won’t even let the bill get a yes-or-no vote because he doesn’t want to anger the extremists in his party.”  Soon after, Boehner (R-Ohio) rebutted in a quote to MSNBC, “I do not see that happening,” when asked if he would accept the clean government funding bill. The government shutdown will cease immediately once Congress passes a federal budget.

   “Both my parents work for the government,” said senior Cassidy Smith in the wake of the shutdown, “We don’t know what to do while the government is shut down. It’s a struggle.”  This is deja vu for some older members of the community. Many teachers recall the last government shutdown during the Clinton administration 17 years ago, which lasted for 27 days. “I was working for the State Department at the time. The shutdown happened in two phases; the first phase I was considered essential and the second phase I was nonessential,” said social science teacher Kevin Briscoe.

  On October 17, 2013, a few minutes after midnight, President Obama signed a bill raising the debt ceiling and reopening the Federal government. The agreement funds the federal government in place of an annual budget through January 15, 2014 and lifts the debt limit through February 7, 2014. “We fought the good fight,” Boehner told WLW radio, “We just didn’t win.”