American Government
Gridlock is characterized with political stalemate, shutdowns and also deadlocks (Barbour & Wright, 2012). According to Washing Post Politics Glossary, it has been noted that a gridlock is a complex situation where passing of laws becomes difficult, in the sense that the votes supporting and the votes opposing the legislation are distributed evenly. Agreement between the two opposing sides becomes very uneven and impossible. In the United States, there have been a number of gridlocks in the political history. Researchers in the United States have blamed the constitution for creating avenues of legislative gridlocks. The most recent United States government shutdown identify with the 1995-1996 shutdowns and the 2013 shutdowns (Barbour & Wright, 2013).
There has been increasing gridlocks in the United States; surveys indicated that gridlocks happen in occasions where United States Senate and United States House of Representatives are powered by parties that are different or powered by a party which is different to that of the sitting president. It has also been noted that gridlocks happens at the Senate level where there is no individual party with majority of the supporters (Barbour & Wright, 2012).
There have been an increasing number of gridlocks in the congress in the recent times, which is characterized with government shutdown. It is believed that gridlocks are hurting the American dream by hurting the economy. The frequency of the political gridlocks in the United States is so common so that people talk about the issue just like weather and tax reforms are discussed openly (Barbour & Wright, 2013). The challenge is that Americans discuss on gridlock and does nothing on the heated issue. The gridlocks are affecting the daily lives of the American people, the Congress has failed to pass budgets, and it has also failed in confirming enough judges needed at the federal courts. Gridlocks have led to a number of confrontations like it was observed in the Affordable Care Act and the standoff in the support of the labor unions among other confrontations.
Increasing gridlocks in the United States has led to the formation of political movements and players, examples being Occupy movement, Tea Party movements, Club for Growth movement and Move-on movement among others. The formation of political movements and players is an indication that the government of the United States has failed to reach at a common ground and also inability to compromise on a number of sensitive issues.
Washington gridlock has faced a number of issues, House of Representatives and the United States Senate meet at the capital city of the United States (Barbour & Wright, 2012). Individuals willing to attend the sessions must notify the Senators or the representative in the region six weeks before the session. Surveys have indicated that the lawmakers in a government shutdown has failed to pass laws on funding, hence delaying the government operations (Williams, 2013).
2013 United States federal government shutdown was initiated in October 1st 2013 and ended in October 16th 2013. The shutdown affected financing year 2014, Normal operations were resumed after interim appropriations bill came into law. Major dimensions in the 2013 government shutdown touched on expenditures, economy, military budget financial position, federal budget, unemployment and public debt taxation among other critical issues. Highly affected programs identified with social programs, Medicare and the social security programs. One of the most controversial program identify with the Obamacare or Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Barbour & Wright, 2013).
American economy and workers in the United States heavily lost after government shutdown happened. The crisis happens without the support of either side. Critics indicated that government shutdown happens after different political divides fail to agree on the ways of funding government operations. Obama is recognized with the controversial Obamacare program, the American public is skeptical on the health care law. Obama who is a Democrat went against the Republicans. Some critics have argued that Obamacare is not worth causing a government shutdown. Republicans on the other side argued that the Obama administration has been fiscal and inflexible in the talks. Raising the debt ceiling of the United States has generated a number of controversies. History indicated that President Bill Clinton faced similar shutdown in 1995-1996 due to the Republican Congress (Barbour & Wright, 2012).
World leaders have argued that United States political gridlocks will hurt the global economies, and that the problem is not only limited to the United States. It has been argued that the congressional gridlock jeopardize the confidence of the United States dollar in the global market (Williams, 2013). Surveys have shown that Japan and China are the largest holders attached to the foreign bills at the United States Treasury Bills, which are influential at the outstanding debt in Washington. Data collected by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) indicated that United States as a whole face huge losses. There are high chances that the government shutdown could result to recession like it happened in 2008 (Barbour & Wright, 2012).
United stated congress gridlock contributes to the global crisis. It is important for the Democrats and the Republicans to eliminate cases of government shutdown. Since the conflict has negative repercussions on the dollar confidence in the international markets. Political uncertainty and discord has been an issue in the United States in the recent past (Barbour & Wright, 2013).
References
Barbour, C. & Wright, G. (2012). Keeping the Republic: Power and Citizenship in American Politics. Washington, DC: CQ Press.
Barbour, C. & Wright, G. (2013). Keeping the Republic: Power and Citizenship in American Politics. Washington, DC: CQ Press.
Williams, C. J. (2013, October 16). Political gridlock over U.S. debt not just America’s problem. Retrieved November 22, 2013, from Articles.latimes.com: http://articles.latimes.com/2013/oct/16/world/la-fg-wn-us-debt-default-global-consequences-20131016
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