Today we are all reading about the US government shutdown.
Should we in Canada care? Does it affect us?
Well yes and no. It doesn’t really affect you (unless you’re travelling to a national park) – but it is good to pay a bit of attention to it.
But in reality it is interesting to see how this is playing out, the causes, and the effects. It is really coming off as a bit of a child’s game.
What exactly is the US Government Shutdown?
Well it does not affect welfare, social security, doctor’s appointments, mail delivery, and national safety related government services. Troops, air traffic controllers, prison guards, border patrol will still function – but paycheques will be delayed until government restarts.
Government services, national parks, and other non-essentials will immediately close.
Or at least that is how I understood it. The shutdown isn’t important enough to me to watch the video more than once.
The statement that hit me the most was “…the federal government is America’s largest employer”. This is the cause of the problems to begin with: the bigger government gets, the more power it has to accelerates its own growth and consumption.
Obama blamed everything on the Republicans who wouldn’t approve his budget. Sure they didn’t help, but this whole thing is just quite comical.
My favourite report on the story is quite different, it is from the Slate and is a bit satirical. It reports on the story as if it were occurring not in the USA, but in one of the foreign countries that the USA likes to control and make comment on:
Here’s a video of President Obama discussing the shutdown:
What do you think of the US government shutdown?
Do you think it affects Canadians? Should we even care?