It’s crazy time again in Washington, D.C. It seems some Republicans are so enraged that millions of Americans will start getting health care thanks to the Affordable Care Act that they are willing to go to any lengths to stop its implementation. In the House, they’ve voted 42 times to defund, overturn, delay and otherwise cut the ACA. And now House Republicans have pushed the government into shutting down as part of their “Obamacare” tantrum.
This Congress is already on track as being one of the least productive in our nation’s history, but I guess that wasn’t enough. In their zeal, they think nothing of putting up to 1 million federal workers out of work without pay. In their cowardice, they put at risk countless numbers of Americans that count on our federal government.
In the five years since the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, Iowa communities have led our nation’s economic recovery. A government shutdown is a setback these communities and to the economy as a whole.
Among other things, federally supported early childhood centers will cease operation, Social Security staff will not be available to answer questions or accept new applications, national parks and monuments will close, small business loan applications will not be reviewed and America’s standing and reputation as a country that can govern and face its challenges head on will be impaired.
Of Iowa’s Congressional Delegation, our very own Steve King was among the 80 Republicans who asked U.S. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, to resist any spending bills that would accommodate the new health care law, which is, even as we speak, funded and online to sign up millions of Americans for health coverage. click to see the letter
It is the obligation of Congress keep the government open.
I always thought we elected people to bodies like the U.S. Congress who cared about making things better for all of us – not to act like petulant children when they don’t get their way. Unfortunately it seems, at least today, I am mistaken.
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Sue Dinsdale
Executive Director
Iowa Citizen Action Network (ICAN)
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