Who Shut Down the Government?
By Thomas Sowell
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Even
when it comes to something as basic, and apparently as simple and
straightforward, as the question of who shut down the federal
government, there are diametrically opposite answers, depending on
whether you talk to Democrats or to Republicans.
There
is really nothing complicated about the facts. The
Republican-controlled House of Representatives voted all the money
required to keep all government activities going — except for ObamaCare.
This is not a matter of opinion. You can check the Congressional Record.
As
for the House of Representatives' right to grant or withhold money,
that is not a matter of opinion either. You can check the Constitution
of the United States. All
spending bills must originate in the House of Representatives, which
means that Congressmen there have a right to decide whether or not they
want to spend money on a particular government activity.
Whether
ObamaCare is good, bad or indifferent is a matter of opinion. But it is
a matter of fact that members of the House of Representatives have a
right to make spending decisions based on their opinion.
ObamaCare
is indeed "the law of the land," as its supporters keep saying, and the
Supreme Court has upheld its Constitutionality.
But
the whole point of having a division of powers within the federal
government is that each branch can decide independently what it wants to
do or not do, regardless of what the other branches do, when exercising
the powers specifically granted to that branch by the Constitution.
The
hundreds of thousands of government workers who have been laid off are
not idle because the House of Representatives did not vote enough money
to pay their salaries or the other expenses of their agencies — unless
they are in an agency that would administer ObamaCare.
Since
we cannot read minds, we cannot say who — if anybody — "wants to shut
down the government." But we do know who had the option to keep the
government running and chose not to. The money voted by the House of
Representatives covered everything that the government does, except for
ObamaCare.
The
Senate chose not to vote to authorize that money to be spent, because
it did not include money for ObamaCare. Senate Majority Leader Harry
Reid says that he wants a "clean" bill from the House of
Representatives, and some in the media keep repeating the word "clean"
like a mantra. But what is unclean about not giving Harry Reid
everything he wants?
If
Senator Reid and President Obama refuse to accept the money required to
run the government, because it leaves out the money they want to run
ObamaCare, that is their right. But that is also their responsibility.
You
cannot blame other people for not giving you everything you want. And
it is a fraud to blame them when you refuse to use the money they did
vote, even when it is ample to pay for everything else in the
government.
When
Barack Obama keeps claiming that it is some new outrage for those who
control the money to try to change government policy by granting or
withholding money, that is simply a bald-faced lie. You can check the
history of other examples of "legislation by appropriation" as it used
to be called.
Whether
legislation by appropriation is a good idea or a bad idea is a matter
of opinion. But whether it is both legal and not unprecedented is a
matter of fact.
Perhaps
the biggest of the big lies is that the government will not be able to
pay what it owes on the national debt, creating a danger of default. Tax
money keeps coming into the Treasury during the shutdown, and it vastly
exceeds the interest that has to be paid on the national debt.
Even
if the debt ceiling is not lifted, that only means that government is
not allowed to run up new debt. But that does not mean that it is unable
to pay the interest on existing debt.
None
of this is rocket science. But unless the Republicans get their side of
the story out — and articulation has never been their strong suit — the
lies will win. More important, the whole country will lose.
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