Why is the US government closed?

There are laws to follow when the US government closes its doors. Paragraph 9 of Article 1 of the Constitution of the United States stipulates that "no money shall be raised from the national treasury except as provided by law, and all income and expenditure reports and accounts of public funds shall be published regularly". In response to this provision of the Constitution, the United States passed the Anti-Budget Overexpenditure Act (ADA) in 1870, which clarified how the government should obtain and use the budget and prohibited the government from spending money beyond the budget. Any federal civil servant who violates the Anti-Budget Overexpenditure Act will be sentenced to up to two years' imprisonment and a fine of $5,000. When the budget proposed by the government is not approved by Congress, the government should close its doors (except key departments).

To put it bluntly, the government closed down because of "poor money", spent all its budget and had no money to pay civil servants, so it had to close down.

The president of the United States is the big boss of the federal government, and the government is "short of money". According to China people's understanding, the president is "incapable" of asking Congress for money.

Although the president of the United States is riding Air Force One and bulletproof car, he is always squeezing around and showing off everywhere, but he is a veritable "paper tiger". Nixon told a lie, Clinton found a mistress, and no one asked the people, and the president could not. A great president was tried again and again by the court and Congress, one was forced to resign and the other was almost impeached.

The president of the United States is awesome abroad. He can take the Panamanian president to the United States for trial, but at home, he can't get up.

During the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations, Mayor new york held a concert for heads of state. Before the concert, the mayor expelled the guests invited by President Clinton from the theater on the grounds that Arafat was a "terrorist", which made Clinton furious. But there's nothing he can do about the mayor. He must apologize to Arafat on his own behalf. He can't represent others because no citizen authorized him to apologize to Arafat.

When the president of the United States visits other places, local government officials have no obligation to accompany him, or even see him, giving the president no face at all.

Civil servants at any level in the United States, even the president, have no right to allocate funds. Even if you spend a dollar, you have to apply to Congress. A few years ago, a delegation from China's Ministry of Finance visited the United States, and the US Treasury received it. At the reception banquet, the US Treasury Secretary said: "Congress only approved the money for food, but not for wine. This table of food is paid for by the government. You should thank American taxpayers for eating vegetables, and I should pay for wine myself. You should thank me for drinking. " The only superpower in the world, the God of Wealth, is on a business trip to entertain foreign guests, but even the money for drinks can't be approved!

Congressman barbara jordan said: "As civil servants, we must be an example to others in this country." Therefore, American civil servants are like living in a glass house and accepting the supervision of the people. Civil servants are the gatekeepers of the national treasury. They can't "steal" and quietly put the money from the state treasury into their pockets. They can't lie, they can't do their work well, and they are clamoring for a raise every day. Therefore,1FEPCA, which came into effect on October 5, 1990 165438 specifically stipulates that "the salary of federal civil servants shall not be higher than that of private enterprises".

It can be seen that in the United States, if a person wants to get rich, he should never be a civil servant. No one in the United States has made a fortune in the position of civil servant. There is a simple reason. Civil servants at any level have no financial power and no channels for money, which has eliminated corruption from the system.

How did the government get the money? Before the end of each fiscal year (from June 65438+1 October1of the previous year to September 30 of that year), the president must sign the appropriation bill of 13, that is, the government expenditure for the next fiscal year. But sometimes the president's budget will fail in Congress. Usually, the president's budget expenditure is too large, and Congress wants to cut the president's budget. If the president doesn't agree to the budget cuts demanded by Congress, there will be a budget gap. This requires wise consultations between the President and the Congress to reach an agreement on the budget as soon as possible, otherwise, the government will close after September 30th.

The United States also has remedial measures to avoid the closure of the government in this case, that is, through the short-term temporary budget "emergency budget plan", it provides funds for the government to continue to operate and provides time for the president to continue consultations with Congress. If the emergency budget scheme expires and the formal budget bill has not been passed, then either another emergency budget scheme is adopted to maintain the government's operation or the government is closed.

Facing the crisis of government shutdown

Since the budget plan for fiscal year 201/kloc-0 submitted by President Obama to Congress will lead to a fiscal deficit of150 billion US dollars, and it was not approved by Congress at the end of fiscal year 20 10, the US government has been. This budget expires on March 4th. That is to say, if the Parliament and the President can't reach an agreement before 24: 00 on March 4th, the government will run out of funds and have to close its doors from 0: 00 on March 5th.

In order to avoid a government shutdown, the President and Congress entered into negotiations, and both sides hoped that the other side would compromise on the budget. * * * The Republican-controlled House of Representatives asked the President to cut the budget by $6 1 billion in the remaining seven months of this fiscal year, with an average daily reduction of $290 million. The president believes that excessive cuts will have a great negative impact on health care reform, employment and stimulating economic recovery. Therefore, the President and Congress failed to reach an agreement.

In order to prevent the government from shutting down, on March 1, the House of Representatives passed a two-week "emergency budget plan", demanding that President Obama cut the existing government expenditure level by 4 billion US dollars, with an average daily reduction of about 290 million US dollars, which is the same as that originally proposed by the House of Representatives.

On March 1 day, Henry Reid, leader of the Democratic Party in the Senate, said that although the Democratic Party members in the Senate disapproved of the party's proposal, they would vote to pass this provisional budget plan in order to avoid the federal government's closure.

On March 2, the Senate voted to pass the emergency budget plan proposed by the House of Representatives. In the afternoon, President Obama reluctantly signed the plan and made it into law. In this way, the crisis of the closure of the US federal government on March 5 passed. However, if the formal budget bill cannot be passed in Congress before March 18, the Obama administration will once again face the crisis of government shutdown.

Facing the US fiscal deficit of $654.38 +0.5 trillion, Republican Senator Tom Goben said: "Our country is suffering from serious diseases and cancer, which will make us lose our freedom."

Mitch McConnell, the leader of the Senate and the party, said: "At present, the high debt of the United States has seriously damaged the American economy. Since the Obama administration took office, the US fiscal deficit has increased by $3 trillion, but we have lost 3 million jobs. It can be said that this is the worst way of government management, and we must stop it. "

Bernie sanders, an independent senator, believes that such a huge budget cut proposed by the Chinese Communist Party will harm the interests of the middle class, the poor, the elderly, the sick and children, because many of their welfare projects will not be implemented. The Democratic Party warned that excessive budget cuts would hinder the economic recovery of the United States and damage its long-term competitiveness.

The American public seems to be used to the government closing. In order to write this article, the author called American friends and asked them to talk about their views. They didn't show any concern about it, and some people didn't even know the news of the government closure. However, Washington Post conducted a public opinion survey on the crisis of government lockout from February 24th to 27th. According to the survey, 36% people think that if the government really shuts down, it is the fault of * * * and the party, 35% people think it is the fault of the Obama administration, 17% people "hit 50 boards each" and think that both sides are at fault. 12.

In American history,

The government closed for the longest time.

1995 At the end of the fiscal year, according to the budget proposed by President Clinton, the United States needed to raise the ceiling of fiscal deficit, while newt gingrich, Speaker of the House of Representatives, insisted on refusing to raise the ceiling of fiscal deficit to avoid the country falling into a debt crisis. At first, Speaker newt gingrich thought that President Clinton would give in and cut the budget. As a result, the president vetoed the budget bill submitted by Congress, which made the game between the president and Congress last for a long time and led to the federal government19951kloc-0/4 ~1kloc-0/0.

Because the budget bill was not passed, the government could only rely on the "emergency budget plan" to operate during the period from 65438 10 to 65438 10. 165438+ 10/3 is the last moment when the emergency budget scheme expires. President Clinton, Speaker Gingrich, Vice President Al Gore, House of Representatives, Democratic Speaker Dick Amney and Senator Bob Dole held consultations again to try to resolve the budget differences.

President Clinton described the consultation as follows: "Amni rudely told me that if I didn't give in to them, they would shut down the government and my presidency would be over." I retorted that I would never let their budget become law (the budget can't take effect without the president's signature), and I would rather drop it by 5 percentage points in the opinion polls. If you want to pass your budget, you must let someone else be the master of the White House! There is no doubt that we haven't reached an agreement yet. "

Therefore, starting from 165438+ 10/0/4, the federal government announced the closure. Later, both the President and Congress made some concessions and passed an emergency budget plan. The government began to operate again on1October 1 19, but the differences between President Clinton and the Speaker of Congress have not been bridged, and the provisional budget expired on February 15, which led to the longest time in American history. During the government shutdown, just in time for Christmas, President Clinton had to pay the electricity bill of the White House out of his own pocket, so that the lights of the first Christmas tree in the United States did not go out.

Later, the third "emergency budget plan" was passed, and the American government began to open its doors on June 6, 65438. 1996 65438+1During the period from October 6th to April 26th, the federal government of the United States has been operating under several emergency budget schemes.

In response to the government shutdown, the party and the president blamed each other, but the public sympathized with President Clinton. Polls show that President Clinton's public opinion support rate has reached the highest point since he took office, and his party support rate has gradually declined.

Speaker newt gingrich once told reporters that he forced the government to shut down because the president rudely let him and Senator Bob Dole sit in the back of Air Force One, and he felt humiliated by the president. Gingrich's careless words to reporters made him lose his moral support.

How does the government close the door?

According to the Anti-Super Budget Law, the Office of Administration and Budget (OMB) is responsible for the management and coordination of the closure of the federal government, while the Personnel Bureau (OPM) provides technical support for the personnel management of government departments, especially the salary and welfare management of civil servants during the closure of the government.

When the government closes, not all departments close. According to the law, during the closure of the government, "in an emergency, if a department fails to perform its duties, it will cause direct damage to people's lives and property", and these departments should keep running. During the government shutdown, the following departments and personnel will not be affected:

Civil servants in charge of national security and foreign affairs departments related to national security or the safety of people's lives and property; For some government contracts whose budgets are not used up; Hospital medical staff responsible for treatment, nursing, outpatient service and public health; Personnel who maintain air traffic control and other traffic safety and protect traffic facilities; Border guards and security personnel who patrol the coast and protect the land, buildings, rivers and other property of the federal government; Guarding prison guards and other prisoners; Maintenance of social order and criminal investigators; First aid and rescue personnel; Power station and power supply department; The federal government's monetary reserve system, tax and financial departments; Security of government scientific research institutions.

Civil servants who go home for vacation during the government's closure are not paid, but their medical insurance will continue to be effective during the closure. The federal government pays the insurance premiums that the government should pay, and civil servants pay the insurance premiums themselves, or temporarily owe the insurance premiums during the government's closure and deduct them from their wages when they return to work.

5 Consequences of government closure

Although the government's closure "taught" the government a long memory and always reminded the government to be careful and avoid wasting money, the society also had to bear some costs for the government's closure.

On September 20th, 2004, the Congressional Bureau of Investigation (CRS) submitted a report to the National Assembly on the reasons, procedures and impacts of government shutdown, and evaluated the impacts of government shutdown, ranging from 1995 12 16 to 1996 15.

Health and sanitation. Some medical institutions supported by government finance refused to accept new patients, and the disease prevention and control departments also stopped testing. Disinfection and collection of 609 toxic waste collection points stopped, and 2,400 federal workers who collected toxic waste were sent home.

* * * Safe. The application procedures for alcohol, tobacco, weapons and explosives were postponed or stopped, the trial of 3,500 bankruptcy cases was suspended, the recruitment, training and examination of federal judicial personnel, including 400 border patrol officers, were cancelled, and the assistance and correction of criminal children were suspended.

Parks, museums, memorial halls. The closure of scenic spots in 368 national parks has delayed the visit of 7 million tourists to these scenic spots, and lost 6.5438+0.42 million dollars in tourism revenue every day, and closed museums and memorial halls also lost 2 million tourists.

Visa, passport Every day, 20,000 to 30,000 visas cannot be processed, and 200,000 passport applications are delayed, causing huge losses to the tourism and civil aviation industries.

Indians. Indian Affairs Bureau of the Ministry of Interior13,500 civil servants were all on holiday, 53,000 Indians' rescue work was delayed, and 25,000 Indians did not receive fuel and gas subsidies.

Veteran. Medical, welfare, financial and tourism services for veterans have been reduced.

Federal contract. Of the $654.38+08 billion federal contracts in Washington, $3.7 billion was affected by the funding gap, and the employees responsible for implementing these federal contracts did not take paid vacations.

Citizen service. 400,000 people who joined the old-age medical insurance system were delayed in registration because of the government closure, 65,438+065,438+02,000 people who joined the social security system did not go through the formalities, 265,438+02,000 new and postponed social security cards were not issued, and 360,000 outpatient visits were delayed, 800.