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Christian Schneider | In My Opinion

Relax: History tells us U.S. will recover from federal shutdown

A man works in an empty courtyard surrounded by federal office buildings in Washington, D.C., on Thursday.



The damaging effects of the federal government shutdown reached critical mass early this week, when First Lady Michelle Obama announced updates to her Twitter would be limited due to Congress' failure to pass legislation to fund the government.

As of this writing, there are no reports of riots as a result of the first lady and 25 members of her staff not being able to post updates to a privately owned social media service. In the short term, it seems the nation has learned to function without reading Obama congratulate tennis legend Billie Jean King on the 40th anniversary of the Battle of the Sexes match, and remind thirsty Americans that drinking water is you at your best. (Which is certainly true if you've seen someone try to karaoke after a few gin and tonics.)

Obviously, there are core functions of government that should be funded, and when government shuts down, it makes elected officials look like buffoons. This week, our representatives looked like college roommates whose electricity has been cut off because they can't agree who should pay the bill.

But political dramas have many co-authors, and certainly there are those who want to make it seem as if the federal government ceasing operation for a few days has hurled the nation into a Hobbesian state of nature. (Perhaps Michelle Obama had to use her iPhone to kill a wild boar, rendering the phone unable to tweet.)

Consequently, Democrats tried to play up the adverse effects of the shutdown, blaming Republicans for things such as cancer patients being turned away from the National Institutes of Health. But House Republicans passed a bill funding the NIH during the shutdown, and prior to the vote, when asked why the Democratic-controlled Senate wouldn't pass the bill and help one child with cancer, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid fired back: "Why would we want to do that?"

Well, because they have cancer. But agreeing with Republicans on common-sense NIH funding would vaporize the Democrats' sword of demagoguery, leaving them less able to paint the GOP as pro-cancer monsters.

Standing behind Reid at the fateful press conference, New York Sen. Chuck Schumer tried to throw the majority leader a life preserver, whispering, why pit one against the other? But that's what budgeting is: It is making decisions about who gets funding and when. In fact, just a week earlier, the House and Senate did pit one against the other and passed a bill to keep military pay going in the event of a shutdown. (In the meantime, when the government did shut down, the Department of Education furloughed 95% of its employees, deeming them non-essential.)

And while Democrats try to play up the damage done by the shutdown, history tells us the country will be just fine. In fact, there have been 18 government shutdowns since 1976, although it has been 18 years since the famous Clinton/Gingrich shutdown of 1995.

As Andrew Stiles of National Review has noted, at the same point in Ronald Reagan's presidency, the federal government had shut down six times. Democratic House Speaker Tip O'Neill fathered seven government shutdowns under Ronald Reagan and five under President Jimmy Carter meaning O'Neill was involved in two-thirds of the shutdowns in the past 37 years. (Of the 17 previous shutdowns, eight took place with one party controlling both houses of Congress, and five took place with one party controlling the House, Senate and presidency.)

It's not even certain how much of a public relations hit Congress will take because of this whole shutdown imbroglio. Congress' approval rating currently stands at around 13% — only slightly lower than that of rat poison. How much further can they really drop? Members of Congress trying to improve their standing at this point would be like psoriasis hiring a public relations firm.

Of course, the perils of government obstruction are mainly in the eye of the beholder. Liberal Wisconsinites fondly recall early 2011, when state Senate Democrats sought asylum in Illinois to pour sand in the gears of government. But that was so long ago, and "Look over there! The Koch Brothers!"

In moving the nation toward a shutdown, Republicans did hand the president one gift: the shutdown obscured the disastrous Obamacare health care rollout last Tuesday. But when all is said and done, Obamacare will go on, as will the rest of the post-shutdown government. And then, we can send a National Guard search team out for the first lady.


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