The Republican’s Shutdown: Hopping Fences for Photo Ops

By: Emma Westerhof

Sentry Staff Reporter

The United States Congress’s one key duty, stipulated in the Constitution, is to pass spending bills that fund the government. If ever a hitch is encountered, most functions of government, from funding agencies to paying out small business loans and processing passport requests, grind to a halt. As of this month, Republicans and Democrats could not agree on a spending plan for the fiscal year that started October 1. Bickering across the aisle over Obamacare reached an all time high, leaving federal coffers short, while threats of government shutdown reverberated on Capitol Hill. When the budget proposal failed, shutdown went into immediate effect. Insistent that any new spending bill include provisions that defund or undermine Obamacare, House Republicans continue to be obstinate and unyielding on their position. They believe that the president’s domestic policy achievement is so awful that it is worth disrupting government funding in order to derail it.

While the health care law is not directly related to funding the government, it has become a bargaining chip for a group of Tea Party Republicans, led by Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, who believe the White House and Senate have failed to even entertain Republican ideas. They expect to agree on a “compromise” that will essentially wipe out Obamacare, despite the Supreme Court’s ruling that upheld the Affordable Care Act last year. Republicans have irresponsibly pushed the issue to a budgetary crisis and are more committed to refusing to cooperate with the White House and Democrats, than they are to creating a health care law that will benefit all of America.

The confusion and chaos created by the government shutdown extend beyond the walls of the Senate and House of Representatives building. It is estimated that 800,000 federal workers have been furloughed, while hundreds of thousands of dollars will be lost. The closing of memorials, as well as hundreds of national park and forest service sites across the nation is also a casualty of the government shutdown. Containing unique natural treasures, national parks require the constant care, preservation and protection by the National Park Service Rangers. Arguing that it costs less to barricade and guard than it does to patrol and maintain parks and memorials, the National Parks Agency decided it could not do its job sufficiently under the shutdown.

Quick to blame President Obama and the Senate Democrats for the budget impasse, Republicans have found leverage in latching onto a controversy over the barricading of memorials. On October 2, World War II veterans were flown to Washington D.C. to visit the National World War II Memorial. Their trip was paid for and sponsored by Honor Flight Network, a non-profit organization that transports war heroes and survivors to our nation’s capital to see the memorials. In an effort to portray him as heartless and insensitive to Honor Flight Network’s cause, Republicans have accused President Obama of “kicking the war heroes off their memorial.”

When a group of veterans all over the age of 85-years-old arrived on site, four-foot-high portable railings blocking off the memorial and a delegation from Congress greeted them. Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann and Texas Rep. John Carter were at the monument to open the railings and cheer on the Honor Flight participants in full view of the media. They showed up as if to take a stand against “big government” intrusion and to take credit for being “liberators” of the memorial for veterans. The Republican posse has been unable to refrain from showing up to pose for photos, give statements and “free” the monuments from the employees standing guard.

It is easy to see why the closing of veteran memorials has become political bait for Republicans. The closures are real and visible and evoke a patriotic response as a result of their effect on the World War II veterans forced to move blockades to gain access. However, it is not accurate to categorize the results of the government shutdown as President Obama’s way of hurting or manipulating America. The conservative right-wing GOP has attempted to use the veteran’s visit to the National World War II Memorial as an opportunity to win over the hearts and minds of the American public. The irony of the situation is that the Republican Party is responsible for the government shutdown that caused the closure of memorials throughout Washington D.C. in the first place. Ignorance, stubbornness and pride, are the driving forces behind the Republican’s government shutdown.

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