Current Event: Week of 2/25

“Congress, Obama Brace for Showdown as Government Shutdown Looms”
Paul Kane
February 20, 2011

　

Last Saturday, the House attempted to pass a budget measure that would cut $61 billion from government funded programs. This idea was quickly shut down by the President and Senate Democrats. The measure was passed later that day and now moved onto the Senate. The Senate has previously stated that the “House Plan’s cuts are too drastic. The cuts decrease budgets up to 40%, hundreds of millions cut from border security and funding for the District of Columbia and funding for companies like AmeriCorps and PBS would stop all together. However, the Senate only has a few days to talk about the bill; they only have until March 4th. With this short amount of time, it is rare that the two government branches will agree. Because of the short amount of time and the likely disagreement; it is expected for the government to shut down, or will have to come up with and agree on a new, temporary plan for the budget. If a temporary plan could still be hard for the government to agree on, because that would still have to make substantial cuts.

I thought this article was informative, and interesting. The author gives the impression of the Republicans pushing heavier cuts, and uses quotes from both Republicans and Democrats telling their side of the debates. The quotes help readers to understand what is going through the mind of the government officials while deliberating over the cuts, and trying to find ways to keep minimal cuts to programs such as Planned Parenthood and PBS. I am not sure what my standpoint on the subject of the budget cuts is. On one hand, I would be regretful if things like PBS were cut from the nation; because I feel they are a large part of positive social media. On the other hand, budget cuts are one of the few ways our country will begin to crawl out of the debt we have dug into over the years.

　

　Original Article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/19/AR2011021903916_pf.html