Earlier this week on the stroke of midnight on Tuesday, Oct 1, the US Government was partially shut down. This sounds absurd. How can a government shut down ? And what does it mean ?
Great questions and there are several answers out there. There are also many opinions on who to blame. And depending on whose opinion it is, it varies from the Republicans, to Congress, to the Senate, to the President. The way the Government works is that there are 2 types of methods in which Government departments., or Government programs get funded. The first is those programs which are automatically funded. Programs such as Social Security, Medicare, Armed Forces. And then there are those which are funded on the basis of yearly congressional appropriations or basically congress approving an annual budget for the year. And these have to be approved by October 1, for the coming year, else those departments need to start cutting on spending. These departments include the National Park Service and so parks and monuments are closed as well as agencies such as the Pentagon, so civilian employees will start getting forced leave.
The television media is covering the negotiations or rather the lack of negotiations between the Democratic Senate, Republican Congress and a Democratic President. And whilst I have several opinions on why each of them is behaving like a spoilt brat, I'll let that pass for fear of being yet another voice who knows nothing about nothing.
Interestingly this is an annual event. And on most occasions a budget does not get approved. What does happen is that a Continuous Resolution is passed, popularly called a CR, which is nothing but akin to maintaining the status quo, until the next event.
I have a very simple solution to avoid the impasse. Its called "Tacit Approval". And what this implies is that whenever any decision is not arrived at by the majority in both houses which has been approved by the President, the TA (Lets give it an acronym so that its easier to get approved), automatically kicks in. In other words, the government can never be closed.
A question that may come to mind is that this could be misused by the political parties to avoid coming to an agreement. The interesting aspect in this methodology is that it can't be misused, since it doesn't allow any new events. So, if any party wants a new provision or want to do away with an old provision, they will in any case need to get approval of both houses of Congress as well as get the President's acceptance. What the TA does is avoids closing of any program due to a non decision or lack of consensus. So if parties are passionate about agendas, they'll need to work doubly hard to make it happen since inaction will achieve nothing.
IMHO TA is perfect for Government. It ensures that when the politicians do what they do best, "Nothing", "Nothing Happens" and yet everything will continue to function normally, leading to a lot of happy people. And more important very few unhappy people, except of course the politicians, since they would have lost the ability to have nuisance value.
Great questions and there are several answers out there. There are also many opinions on who to blame. And depending on whose opinion it is, it varies from the Republicans, to Congress, to the Senate, to the President. The way the Government works is that there are 2 types of methods in which Government departments., or Government programs get funded. The first is those programs which are automatically funded. Programs such as Social Security, Medicare, Armed Forces. And then there are those which are funded on the basis of yearly congressional appropriations or basically congress approving an annual budget for the year. And these have to be approved by October 1, for the coming year, else those departments need to start cutting on spending. These departments include the National Park Service and so parks and monuments are closed as well as agencies such as the Pentagon, so civilian employees will start getting forced leave.
The television media is covering the negotiations or rather the lack of negotiations between the Democratic Senate, Republican Congress and a Democratic President. And whilst I have several opinions on why each of them is behaving like a spoilt brat, I'll let that pass for fear of being yet another voice who knows nothing about nothing.
Interestingly this is an annual event. And on most occasions a budget does not get approved. What does happen is that a Continuous Resolution is passed, popularly called a CR, which is nothing but akin to maintaining the status quo, until the next event.
I have a very simple solution to avoid the impasse. Its called "Tacit Approval". And what this implies is that whenever any decision is not arrived at by the majority in both houses which has been approved by the President, the TA (Lets give it an acronym so that its easier to get approved), automatically kicks in. In other words, the government can never be closed.
A question that may come to mind is that this could be misused by the political parties to avoid coming to an agreement. The interesting aspect in this methodology is that it can't be misused, since it doesn't allow any new events. So, if any party wants a new provision or want to do away with an old provision, they will in any case need to get approval of both houses of Congress as well as get the President's acceptance. What the TA does is avoids closing of any program due to a non decision or lack of consensus. So if parties are passionate about agendas, they'll need to work doubly hard to make it happen since inaction will achieve nothing.
IMHO TA is perfect for Government. It ensures that when the politicians do what they do best, "Nothing", "Nothing Happens" and yet everything will continue to function normally, leading to a lot of happy people. And more important very few unhappy people, except of course the politicians, since they would have lost the ability to have nuisance value.
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