If the House, Senate, and President can’t all agree on a budget by early March, we’ve been told, we’ll face another government shutdown like we had a few times in the 1990s with a Republican Congress and Bill Clinton in the White House. Back then, Clinton effectively painted the Republicans as unreasonable, and their popularity waned.
This leaves one to wonder why Republicans would want to drift in this direction again. Perhaps they feel the mood is different this time, so it is worth the risk. The country has a colossal debt and Republicans have vowed to do something about it starting with this year’s budget. But President Obama says, “Let’s use a scalpel; let’s not use a machete.”
Is this job too big for a scalpel? Republicans want to cut $60 to $100 billion.
Here’s something interesting: If you are thinking that if the government shut down for awhile, at least some money would be saved on salaries, think again. After the last shutdowns, workers received back pay when they returned to their jobs.
I like it that there are people in the federal government who really want to cut spending, but I think it sends a wrong message to, well, the entire planet if we have a government shutdown. If our duly-elected public servants can’t even agree on basics like a working budget for the year, how are they going to deal with bigger problems like Social Security, health care, and the War on Terror?