Congress has approved a bipartisan deal, ending a two-week-long government shutdown and avoiding a national default.

The shutdown, which started on Oct. 1, occurred as a result of Congress being unable to reach an agreement on the country’s budget. The biggest disagreement between Democrats and Republicans for the budget surrounded the Affordable Care Act.

The Senate’s agreement on Wednesday creates small changes to Obamacare, implementing stricter income requirements for those who register for health insurance, according to an Oct. 16 New York Times article. Under the agreement, the U.S. government would be funded through Jan. 15 and the debt ceiling would be raised until Feb. 7, according to the article.

President Barack Obama signed the bill early Thursday morning, hours after Congress had approved it.

 

Before the vote reached the House, Republicans did not plan on blocking the bipartisan agreement because of the tax consequences that would happen as a result, according to a press release from Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH).

“In addition to the risk of default, doing so would open the door for the Democratic majority in Washington to raise taxes again on the American people,” he said in the release. “With our nation’s economy still struggling under years of the president’s policies, raising taxes is not a viable option.”

He said the Republican Party will continue to attempt ending Obama’s health care law in other venues.

By moving the deadline, government has just “delayed the inevitable,” said Zachary Weiss, the director of communications for the College Republicans.

“This is just kicking the ball further down the road, and the ball is being deflated as it goes down,” he said, describing the agreement as a temporary solution.

Christopher Leist, the College Democrats president, said he was glad an agreement had been reached, as the economic consequences would’ve been major.

“It would have been catastrophic for both the American economy as well as the global economy. The U.S. has never defaulted on its debt and there’s no reason why we should,” he said. “We’re pleased the Senate Republicans have finally come to their senses and agreed to end a two-and-a-half week shutdown that served no purposes.”

He added that he hopes Republicans have learned from this experience that a government shutdown is not what the American people want, and also hopes the same conflict doesn’t arise by Feb. 7, the date to which the debt deadline has been moved.

But Robert McClure, a professor of political science and public affairs at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, said it’s likely the conflict will arise again, adding that the two parties will not be able to reach an agreement.

“We’re going to continue haggling, trying to find a longer-term solution,” he said. “There’s going to be more bargaining. This is what democracy is, it’s messy.”

McClure added that the Republican Party took a majority of the consequences of both the shutdown and the agreement.

Weiss, of the College Republicans, also felt the agreement was a loss for the party.

“If we didn’t reach our goal of removing Obamacare in some degree, it is a bit of a loss for us in some degree, which I hate to say,” he said. “But it is our overall goal we want to reach, so we’re going to keep fighting.”

McClure said although an agreement has been reached, the damage has already been done across the board — with Democrats, Republicans and the entire nation suffering its effects.

The shutdown and near-default have also hurt the government on a global scale, he said.

Published on October 17, 2013 at 1:17 am

Contact Alfred: alng@syr.edu

@alfredwkng