At 12:01 a.m. on Tuesday, the nonessential parts of the U.S. federal government shut down.About 800,000 federal employees have been indefinitely furloughed and others are continuing to work without pay as a result of the shutdown. For this, we have House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and his mindless followers to thank.
The Democrats, who control the White House and the Senate, and the Republicans, who control the House of Representatives, have never been more drastically divided than they are right now. In March, their inability to reach an agreement on the budget crisis led them to pass a temporary spending measure to buy both parties more time to reach a middle point, or for one of them to concede.
Six months have come and gone and an agreement still has not been reached.
Our government was shut down because of a last-ditch effort by Republicans to block an act that was signed three years ago and upheld by the Supreme Court in 2012.
Our government is shut down because the Republican Party is doing everything in its power to stop a law that extends health insurance to millions of Americans who would otherwise have to do without, allows seniors to buy their prescription drugs for much cheaper and ensures that being a woman isn’t a pre-existing condition by forbidding gender discrimination in health insurance.
The Affordable Care Act covers annual checkups and ensures that young people can stay on their parents’ health insurance until they’re 26. It covers maternity care, mandates that health care companies can no longer drop people’s coverage when they get sick and requires insurance companies to cover the cost of contraceptives.
But the majority of the Republican Party, following the lead of Boehner with its Tea Party values and antiquated ideals, opposes this law so vehemently that it is willing to risk any economic progress we have made by shutting down the government and sending consumer confidence spiraling downwards.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, during his 21-hour filibuster, compared stopping the Affordable Care Act to stopping the Nazis in Germany.
Yes, Sen. Cruz. The Nazi Party in Germany, who murdered, suppressed and imprisoned millions in an anti-Semitic campaign to create a superior race, is definitely comparable to “Obamacare,” which provides more Americans access to affordable health care.
And while we’re at it, thank you for reciting “Green Eggs and Ham” during your filibuster, reminding us all just how childish your party is acting.
“Unfortunately, right now House Republicans continue to tie funding of the government to ideological demands like limiting a woman’s access to contraception or delaying the Affordable Care Act,” President Barack Obama said on Monday evening. “One faction of one party in one house of Congress in one branch of government doesn’t get to shut down the entire government just to re-fight the results of an election.”
The votes have been counted. Obama won. Again. The Supreme Court has ruled. And even though Republicans shut down the federal government, open enrollment in the Health Insurance Marketplace still began on Tuesday, as per the ACA.
Millions of Americans who have lived without health insurance or who have been charged higher rates because of their gender will have the chance to purchase affordable insurance. It is time that the Republicans accept their losses, stop withholding money from the American people just because they didn’t get their way and join the rest of us in the 21st century.
Fortesa Latifi is senior studying family studies, pre-med. Follow @Dailywildcat
