Have you ever been to a hospital? Have you seen how many people work there everyday? Could you imagine all of them working without pay? Could you imagine if it was because some people didn’t agree or get along? Guess what, Republicans didn’t agree with Democrats on a budget deal so that did happen.


The Government Shutdown happened on October 1st and did exactly what it sounded like. It closed down all federal jobs except for hospitals and social security checks. This happened because Democrats and Republicans could not agree on a budget deal. Because of this disagreement, 800,000 were furloughed.1.3 million had to work without pay. 19,000 children were cut off of federal programs. National Parks were closed down. Museums were closed down. Manufacturing businesses were closed down. Thus costing the US billions.


The government does not work because of the two parties. I think that having a Republican party and a Democratic party doesn’t help get things done properly or efficiently. One big example of the two parties not getting along is Congress. Congress is the branch of government that makes laws for the country. It is made of the Senate which is controlled by Democrats and the House of Representatives which is controlled by Republicans. Since both parties have different ideas for the country and the role of government, if one side proposes anything then the other will most likely disagree. More so if we are talking about the Republicans in the House of Representatives that are know as the Tea Party. The Tea Party believe even less in the role of government than Republicans so, they even more so do not allow for Democrats to make an agreement or compromise to assist in the continued work of the government.


One way to think about the solution is to think about how things work in other countries. For example in Cape Verde they have a system where the party that wins the elections gets to pick the head of government. In Cape Verde that is a Prime Minister. This is called a parliamentary republic. In that system, the parties that do not win can still have an opinion and vote just like they do in congress, but the government is of one party at a time, so they can agree on what they want to do and do it. If people don’t like it, they can vote them out in four years. It is another way to have balance from the way it is done here where you have a split government so neither party can get things done their way.


Overall, the main issue of the government is that Democrats and Republicans are not able to agree on solutions for the country. And a Democratic President can’t get a Republican Congress to work with him anymore. There is just fighting, and in exchange for not stopping all of Obama’s policies, Republicans ask for extra stuff like they did during the shutdown. Therefore, I think that a system that allows for the President and the Congress to be from one party would allow us to have a better government and get big things done efficiently and properly.