The True Crisis Part 1

Currently the United States is in the throws of a crisis. Many say it's because Congress and the President can't seem to come together to work out a budget.  With each side is entrenched and demanding that the other side concede some points and compromise while still holding solidly to their position.  Each side demands compromise while unwilling to give a millimeter let alone an inch.  But is this the true crisis or just a symptom or indicator?  First let's examine exactly what the current situation really is.

Currently the US Congress, split between the Republicans and Democrats with the President can't quite come to an agreement as to what the budget should be.  The key difference is the funding of the Affordable Care Act or better known as Obamacare.

If you listen to the media and most who discuss this you would think that something like this has never happened before, but it has, repeatedly over the 200 plus years of the US history.  Ok, yes there are some occasional vague references to the shutdown back in the 1995 of which the Republicans took the blame and Clinton came out smelling like a rose.  However even that isn't the first time such an event occurred.  It happened prior with President Reagan, eight times and once under President G. H. W. Bush as well as Presidents Carter and Ford.
Here is the complete list:

• September 30 to October 11, 1976 (10 days)
• September 30 to October 13, 1977 (12 days)
• October 31 to November 9, 1977 (8 days)
• November 30 to December 9, 1977 (8 days)
• September 30 to October 18, 1978 (18 days
• September 30 to October 12, 1979 (11 days)
• November 20 to November 23, 1981 (2 days)
• September 30 to October 2, 1982 (1 day)
• December 17 to December 21, 1982 (3 days)
• November 10 to November 14, 1983 (3 days)
• September 30 to October 3, 1984 (2 days)
• October 3 to October 5, 1984 (1 day)
• October 16 to October 18, 1986 (1 day)
• December 18 to December 20, 1987 (1 day)
• October 5 to October 9, 1990 (3 days)
• November 13  to November 19, 1995 (5 days)
• December 5, 1995 to January 6, 1996 (21 days)

(http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/a-brief-history-of-federal-government-shutdowns/)

All in all there have been 18 shutdowns of both partial and full since 1976.  These shutdowns occurred due to what we call "Budget Gaps"  For most they were brief, one to two days but others lasted a little longer.  Historically over the entirety of the US history there have been budget impasses in the US government, during which the government generally continued to operate anticipating things to work out in the end.  Budget disputes were argued in Congress and with the President until some sort of agreement could be reached.  Almost no pawns were hurt during these battles.  This changed under President Carter when his Attorney General reinterpreted a legislation from 1870.

For years, many federal agencies continued to operate during a funding gap, while “minimizing  all nonessential operations and obligations, believing that Congress did not intend that agencies  close down” while waiting for the enactment of annual appropriations acts or continuing resolutions. In 1980 and 1981, however, Attorney General Benjamin R. Civiletti issued two  opinions that more strictly interpreted the Antideficiency Act in the context of a funding gap, along with its exceptions. The opinions stated that, with some exceptions, the head of an agency could avoid violating the Antideficiency Act only by suspending the agency’s operations until the enactment of an appropriation. In the absence of appropriations, exceptions would be allowed only when there is “some reasonable and articulable connection between the function to be performed and the safety of human life or the protection of property.” (Shutdown of the Federal Government: Causes, Processes, and Effects, February 18, 2011, Congressional Research Service)

The Antideficiency Act was intended to stop a practice by the executive branch in over spending funds so as to force Congress to add to their budget.  A practice that came out at the end of the Civil War was to quickly spend your allotted budget and thus forcing Congress to allocate more funds to keep you going, after all Congress just had to fund all "obligations" of the government.   This was a back door way of increasing your budget.  The Antideficiency Act put a stop to the practice and force government agencies to stay within the proscribed budgets given by Congress.  Prior to this stricter interpretation by AG Civiletti when the US Congress and the President couldn't agree to a budget by the end of the fiscal year government continued as usual except to par down unnecessary activities and new contracts.  Perhaps pay checks might get delayed until the budget would finally get passed, but government operated reasonably normal. 

After this interpretation things changed and politicians started seeing and opportunity to make a political statement or to use government as a pawn in their political battles.  Early on only limited agencies were involved, just the ones in dispute, but by 1995 it focused on the whole of government.  For decades no one was quite willing to go to the extreme and shut down government, mostly the Republicans due to the beating they got in 1995.  

Invariably the Congress in a "compassionate move" will give back pay to the employees of the government so that they don't suffer undue hardships from the loss of pay.  What this means is that our government employees will now have a paid vacation, in addition to the regular vacation time they earn, at the tax payer expense with no benefit.  

In the end Congress and the President will likely work out some kind of a deal, restart government and pay everyone for services not rendered.  At face value it would seem that the crisis will be adverted, but is it really?

Stay tuned for Part 2...