And There Goes the Government...

**Update**: Just learned the my fiancee is directly affected by this as well.  She went home at noon EDT on Tuesday, October 1st, to wait around until the government opens up again, UNPAID.  Ugh...and right before the wedding...

Okay fellow readers, now I'm not one to usually spew about politics, but a huge event happened in the United States overnight, and that was the first government shutdown in 17 years.

And all of it over a little healthcare.

Now, I'm sure my readers who live in parts of Europe are laughing at the U.S. right now, and I don't blame you.  I think this whole thing is preposterous.  

Let me give you a little background:

So, in the past few weeks (not to mention months and years), the Affordable Care Act (aka "Obamacare") of health insurance coverage for everyone in the United States has slowly been creeping up on us, and was supposed to be enacted as of today, October 1, 2013.  However, the Republicans were not happy with the final version of the plan, so they have been battling with the Democrats in the Senate about what should be allowed and what shouldn't.  The fighting and debating got SO BAD that the Republicans started threatening a government shutdown if they were not given what they want.

Congress met Monday, September 30th, to try and come to an agreement and avoid a "stalemate", but eventually, it did not occur. Here is what happened:

The Democrats actually sat down with Republicans late Monday night, and started stripping away pieces of the Affordable Care Act that the Republicans had problems over. Now, granted, the Democrats were not willing to strip away the pieces that were important to them {like delaying Obamacare for another year - the Democrats wouldn't budge on that}, but they started to take away some of the aspects of the act in order to get the Republicans to come to a compromise and avoid the shutdown, including one of the biggest issues on the table - the medical device tax. But the Republicans wouldn't have it. Basically, they stated that if they didn't get their EXACT and SPECIFIED way (where they got everything they wanted and the Democrats had to bend to their every whim), they were going forward with the government shutdown. 

 Obama tweeted after midnight Monday night "The Affordable Care Act is moving forward. You can't shut it down."

Basically, no matter how hard the Republicans try, they're going to have to compromise at SOME point, because the Affordable Care Act WILL happen. They're only causing the shut down because the Republicans are not getting exactly what they want...

...and that's just ridiculous.

Here are my opinions:

I understand that the Republicans don't want certain parts of this bill being passed, and those are the things that the Democrats aren't willing to let go. But at least the Democrats came forward and gave the Republicans other options, even including one big one, still trying to compromise with the stubborn party, rather than just say "Well to hell with you!" and walk away because they didn't get what they wanted. NO ONE is going to get EXACTLY what they want, that's why there is compromise.

All the funding is already in place, and has been distributed, so no matter how the Affordable Care Act turns out, the money is already gone and spent on the program. Therefore, the government shutdown isn't having a huge effect for the Republicans to get their way, it's only hurting government employees, and BADLY.  That's one of the worst parts - the shutdown is only hurting the people right now - not the financial state of the country, or the economy (granted, it WILL if this goes on too long, but currently, we are alright). How messed up is THAT?

My fiancee stated that she thinks the Republicans are trying to hurt the economy so that Obama will have a very negative look in the future.  But this will hurt the government 3-5 years from now - whoever will be in office, not just today.  I completely agree with her.

In addition, because of this, Obama is going to have to "request" to have the "United States credit card limit" (the Debt Ceiling) of $17 billion allowed to be in debt lifted because, after this ridiculous shutdown, the national debt will be more than that (it's going to cost $1 billion a week to have this shutdown), seeing as currently the US is $16.666667 billion in debt. Then this whole thing will have to happen again, and if the Republicans deny the request to increase the limit, we could face another shut down. Then the Republicans will say, "Well if you had just given in to our demands in the first place, we wouldn't have had the first shut down, and now we're not going to allow the country to be even more in debt because of your bad choices." To me, that sounds like a bully.

As an American, I'm just pissed that the Republicans are acting like a bunch of children, and though the Democrats aren't bending to their every whim, the Democratic party is just pulling their hair out, wondering how in the hell they are going to get through this.

In the end,
Come on Republicans...

Stop acting like children,

And run the damn country

Honestly...