Budget Crisis and Government Shutdown

For tens of thousands of federal employees, the last two months of 1995 was none but a nightmare. As President Bill Clinton vetoed several appropriation bills, most federal agencies stopped functioning. About 800000 nonessential federal workers, including staffers of Congressmen, were sent home.

And now history seemed to repeat itself. Congress and the President are in a battle over federal spending. The President has vetoed one large spending bill and other denials are likely to follow. Democrats are issuing press releases and calling news conferences to explain why they are right and the other side is wrong.

Republicans are hoping that its rhetoric of lowering taxes will resonate as Democratic candidates are coming up with new, innovative ways to spend huge sums of money on new programs. By portraying themselves as the party in favor of more spending restraint by the federal government, GOP is trying to make itself more appealing to voters.

However, while favoring lower government spending has been a Republican selling point for several decades, the party certainly hurt their credibility in the past few years by increasing spending at a rapid rate while Congress and the White House were in the hands of Republicans.

Democrats, on the other hand, frame their political mission as one of helping people cope with increased costs for gasoline, health care, college tuition, etc. While this will mean higher taxes, their argument is that the increased spending will be funded by taxing the "rich" in America and hoping that giving more money to more voters through government spending will result in more votes for Democratic candidates.

All of this adds up to a tough scenario when it comes to approving a budget for federal agencies. Republicans know they have to work hard to alter the view that they were opposed more federal spending while tending to approve more money for more pork barrel projects and "the bridge to nowhere" , which has led to higher federal deficits. To have a chance of regaining power in Congress and keeping the White House, they have to take a strong stance against the federal budget.

But given Democrats’ majority in the house, it would again be a nasty battle. So it remains whether the massive shutdown of federal agencies will occur again six years later.