Sometimes government is really frustrating, albeit for different people for different reasons. Personally I get frustrated with its inefficiency, massive deficit spending, and its attempt to play the moral authority of the land, with or without an acknowledgement of God. I do not believe it is qualified to be a moral authority.
I get frustrated even more so with the political hypocrisy that gets in a sagacious government’s way. Note a few brief bits of context and perspective…
- Hypocrisy is the practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which one’s own behavior does not conform.
- Synonyms for hypocrisy include sanctimoniousness, false virtue and deceit.
- Unfortunately, it’s one of the things that many elected conservatives and liberals have in common.
One of the situations in which hypocrisy is seemingly most staggeringly, bipartisanly obvious is in a government shutdown. Perhaps the current shutdown will end soon now that the latest election cycle is over; however, the duration of this shutdown is increasing frustrating.
Government shutdowns occur when Congress fails to pass funding legislation required to finance the federal government. The legislation needs to be passed by a majority in the House, by 60 votes in the Senate, and then signed by the President.
Since 1976, the U.S. federal government has had 27 funding gaps. Prior to 1980, however, funding gaps did not lead to shutdowns. A legal opinion that year stated that government work must stop if Congress hasn’t agreed to pay for it; a later opinion allowed essential government services to continue.
Our elect, no less, have been quite uniform in their stated disdain. Note their following previous descriptions of a government shutdown:
- “Always a bad idea”
- “Completely preventable”
- “A government shutdown serves no one”
- “A potential disaster”
- “Bad policy and politics”
- “Entirely unnecessary and has harmed our economy and our reputation in the world”
- “A politics of idiocy”
- “Almost never works”
Said by Democrats? Republicans? Half of the above are attributed to each. They admit shutdowns are bad for we the people. They also each utilize a shutdown for political leverage. Hence, the hypocrisy.
The four longest shutdowns are listed below and why one party wouldn’t agree; we are not suggesting their reasoning is just or unjust; we are simply noting the role each party has played.
- 1995–1996 — During the Clinton (D) administration (21 days). The House and Senate both had Republican majorities. Congress wanted significant spending cuts, which Pres. Clinton vetoed.
- 2013 — During the Obama (D) administration (16 days). The Senate had a Democratic majority, and the House had a Republican majority. A minority group of House Republicans wanted to first alter the timing of the Affordable Care Act’s implementation.
- 2018–2019 — During the first Trump (R) administration (35 days). The Senate had a Republican majority, and the House had a Democratic majority. Pres. Trump wanted funding for a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. House Democrats did not; it would end up not being included.
- Now — During the second Trump (R) administration (36 days as of this posting). All three branches of government are led by a Republican majority, albeit not with the 60 vote Senate threshold. A majority of Senate Democrats first want an extension of the enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies implemented as a COVID-19 emergency measure.
The parties take turns attempting to utilize their perceived political leverage, seemingly deprioritizing how a shutdown hurts so many. Then they attempt to manipulate us into thinking the other party is maliciously motivated (i.e. they want to starve people… they care more for illegal aliens than for you…), thus often spending more time talking about what the other party is doing wrong rather than taking the time to themselves do right.
My sincere frustration exists, therefore, because we have elect on both the left and the right who hypocritically converse, refuse to compromise, treat one another with lavish disrespect, and can’t seem to figure out how to navigate the hard. Clearly, government should be better and more.
Respectfully…
AR