AFPSpeaker of the House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy
NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 17:44
Wouter Hoogland
Foreign editor
Wouter Hoogland
Foreign editor
An important deadline passes at midnight in the United States: the budget for the new fiscal year must be approved by parliament. If this doesn’t happen, the US will have to deal with one government shutdown. Much of the federal government will then be shut down until there is a deal on the budget.
That deal seems far away because a number of extremely conservative MPs refuse to approve the plans. They are actually pushing for a shutdown to get their demands met. Four questions about this phenomenon that often paralyzes the American government.
1. What happens during a shutdown?
The money tap for large parts of the federal government is turned off during a shutdown. Hundreds of thousands of government employees are not paid and sent home. Public places such as museums and national parks are closed. Road works and air traffic can cause significant delays. Controls on food, water purification and power stations are stopped.
Support for people with low incomes, education programs and asylum procedures are also halted. Employees of federal security services, such as border patrol, the army and the FBI, are also not paid, but often have to continue working.
Some social benefits, such as pensions and benefits for the disabled and veterans, are still paid out. The mail is also still delivered. Members of Parliament are also paid.
2. Why is there a threat of a shutdown now?
A number of members of the House of Representatives, the American lower house, are holding the entire parliament hostage. This group of Republicans from the right flank of the party is demanding far-reaching cuts in education and social assistance, among other things. They also want aid to Ukraine to be stopped completely.
The group, which the New York Times called the ‘wrecking ball faction’ is mentioned, consists of about twenty hardliners, who are loyal to former President Trump. Many delegates in the group did not recognize Biden’s presidential election. These Republicans refuse to make any concessions and frustrate as many plans of the Democrats and the more moderate Republicans as possible.
EPA Prominent members of the group are Matt Gaetz (second from left) and Lauren Boebert (third from left)
The group is a minority in Congress, which consists of the Senate and the House of Representatives. Most Republicans there agree with the budget as it stands now. In the Senate, the American upper house, they reached a compromise to temporarily keep the government open. “This is a whole new group of individuals who just want to burn the place down,” said the Republican chairman of the House of Representatives previously about the faction.
3. Can no one prevent a shutdown?
Yes: the same chairman, Kevin McCarthy. He can have the House vote on the temporary solution, which will prevent a shutdown at least until November 17. But it is unlikely that that vote will happen, because the radical Republicans have McCarthy under their control.
When McCarthy was nominated as chairman early this year, he faced fierce opposition from the group of Trump loyalists. They refused to vote for him because he wanted to cooperate too much with the Democrats. After fifteen rounds of voting, he received just enough support, but under one strict condition: if even one member of Congress wants to impeach him, proceedings will be started.
If he proposes the workaround in the House of Representatives, his opponents will almost certainly initiate impeachment proceedings. Since he only narrowly won the previous voting rounds, there is a good chance that McCarthy would not politically survive such a procedure. McCarthy himself says he is not afraid of an impeachment attempt, but so far it has prevented him from putting the temporary solution to a vote.
4. What are the consequences of a shutdown?
If it comes to a shutdown, there are no winners. A government shutdown is almost always accompanied by economic damage, because many Americans have less to spend. Economists from investment bank Goldman Sachs estimate that economic growth will increase during a shutdown 0.2 percentage points per week decreases. The longest so far was at the end of 2018, under President Trump, when the federal government was shut down for 34 days.
A shutdown can also cause damage at a political level. In most cases it comes at the expense of the president’s popularity. This shutdown could therefore be harmful to Biden for the upcoming elections in 2024.
There are direct consequences for the people who depend on the social benefits that are being halted. According to the White House, seven million mothers and children are at risk of missing out on financial support from nutrition programs.
2023-09-30 15:44:00
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