I'm sure it didn't play out exactly like this, but I imagine Obama showed some of the Bartlet attitude!
I think before coming here I knew the American Government wasn't exactly efficient. A system based on the Separation of Powers to ensure a balanced system doesn't match the modern situation of deeply divided attitudes. Democrats and Republicans no longer seek the compromises sought in the past but stick to strongly entrenched views. Although the incumbent party are the Democrats, lead by President Obama and advocates of the Affordable Health Care Act, Congress who handle the budget are controlled by the Republicans. They refuse to pass a budget without defunding the act, commonly known as Obamacare, despite it being validated by the Supreme court and forming the basis of Obama's re-election a year ago. Call it justified use of power or irresponsible government, the crisis has left Congress unable to pass a budget for the new fiscal year, and as a result the Government shuts down until it is resolved. This means almost 800,000 federal employees have been sent home without pay for the past week and a half, National Parks have been closed, and non-essential departments have been closed. 
It hasn't directly affected us that much, other than a lot of places to visit in D.C being closed. It's a bit frustrating that I can't visit the Smithsonian Institution at the moment, especially since the week before I visited the National Gallery of Art to do some research for my Art History class. But more than losing resources, it's shocking how casual it's been treated. News networks had 'Countdown clocks' and 'Shutdown cam' following the live updates as congressmen did nothing but complain, waste time, and accept the inevitable shutdown. Essentially the result here is that the politicians have failed in their jobs, yet are still being paid to do nothing while thousands are out of work. It's a an embarrassment really, and makes you wonder if our system is all that bad.
Then you remember we ended up putting David Cameron and Nick Clegg into power, so maybe not!
Back on campus the work has started to pile up, especially now the Midterm exams have arrived. For two weeks I have four major exams, and a lot of revision to do. There's a constant system of assessment here that isn't as tough but the workload is much more. On the plus side we don't have January exams, but I'd rather the British system where you can take it pretty easy for a while before knuckling down to study for assignments. Plus our U.S Presidency lecturer told us that an essay is basically telling a story, something we've been taught to avoid for the past 9 years! Every now and then studying in America throws me off completely, but the material is really interesting and I am enjoying the classes.
So until the work is out the way I'm not free to do that much, so we'll hopefully get off campus a bit more once Midterms are done. Maybe the Government will have caught up and gotten back to doing their jobs by the time we've sorted out ours. I'm imagining Obama will sort it out West Wing style.
A
No comments:
Post a Comment