• Location: Chilliwack, BC
• Mood: contemplative
• Music: Ratt-"Round and Round"

The End of Shutdown 2013 (and the prelude to Shutdown 2014?)

On October 16, 2013, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell reached agreement on a proposal to fund the United States federal government through January 15, 2014 and to suspend the debt limit until February 7, 2014. The bill passed the senate by a margin of 81 to 18, with support from all of the Democrats in the Senate and 27 of the Republicans. Eighteen Republicans voted to oppose it. The deal is only a temporary fix, so Americans face the possibility of another government shutdown early next year.



The Republican-controlled House of Representatives also approved the plan, by a margin of 285 votes for to 144 votes against. President Barack Obama signed the bill before yesterday's deadline for Congress to increase the federal debt limit. In speaking to the media about the compromise, the President said that they could "begin to lift this cloud of uncertainty and unease from our businesses and from the American people. We need to get out of the habit of governing by crisis." President Obama announced his intentions to move forward this year and push work on new bills, including reforming the immigration system, passing a farm bill, and working on what he called a "sensible" budget.

Republican House Speaker John Boehner said that he and his fellow Republicans "fought the good fight and did not win", but he added that they were not giving up on the fight to bring down the president's health care overhaul. Boehner said "Our drive to stop the train wreck that is Obama's health-care law will continue."

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Republican leader Mitch McConnell announced the fiscal agreement on the Senate floor earlier on Wednesday. Reid thanked McConnell for working with him to end what had become one of the nastiest partisan battles in recent Washington history.

As underscored in many news reports, the deal is only temporary. In the next several months, leaders from both parties will endeavor to come up with some sort of budget agreement, but as one reporter pointed out, "this is something they have tried to do five times before and they've always been unsuccessful."

With the deal announced, US stock indexes jumped by more than one percent in trading late in the day.

A long line of polls charted a steep decline in public approval for Republicans, who were left with little to show for their fight. The final agreement was essentially along lines that President Obama had set when the impasse began last month. Below is a graphic showing how the New York Daily News assessed the winners and losers of Shutdown 2013:



With the mid-term elections just over a year away, it will be interesting to see if the pattern repeats itself in the new year of if politicians behave in anticiapation of having to face the voters in November of 2014.