Nataley Davis | staff writer

The recent government shutdown had effects on people across the country as more than 1 million government workers did not get paid and about 42 million people lost access to their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits.

After Americans waited for weeks, eight Democrats voted on Nov. 12 to compromise with Republicans on a government funding plan. This gave the bill the 60 votes needed to advance in the Senate and make its way to President Donald Trump’s desk, ending the longest government shutdown in American history.

Mark Haas, professor of political science at Duquesne, said that now that the government has opened back up, the main results for Americans are positive.

“The shutdown had a much more immediate impact on people’s lives when it was ongoing,” Haas said. “The inconveniences and dangers and hardships that are created by the shutdown are now removed.”

The 43-day shutdown began when Democrats made demands in a funding bill to keep tax subsidies for the Affordable Care Act. The tax credit, which passed during former President Joe Biden’s term, is set to expire in December, which would cause more than 2 million Americans to lose their health insurance completely.

The two parties couldn’t agree on a budget by the start of the fiscal year on Oct. 1. Without allocated funding, non-essential parts of government were forced to shut down.

The country is returning to normalcy, but some still see the shutdown as a failure on the Democrats’ part.

Jonathan Collins, president of Duquesne’s College Republicans, said he’s upset with Democrats for shutting down the federal government without being able to accomplish their objective.

“I thought it was going to be more of a compromise, kind of like what we saw with the state budget,” Collins said. “For this federal shutdown, the Democrats didn’t get anything at all.
So for that reason, I don’t really understand or respect why they did this.”

On the same day the federal government reopened, Pennsylvania lawmakers passed a nearly $50 billion budget after a four-month impasse that stopped state dollar flow to schools, counties and non-profits.

Collins said that this was a better example of a compromise between parties because Democrats got their budget passed in the state ,and Republicans got to have less money allocated to environmental regulations.

Others saw the shutdown as necessary, given the need for affordable health care.

Riley Hunter, the president of an unaffiliated chapter of College Democrats made up of Duquesne students, said that she has conflicting feelings on the agreement that reopened the government.

“No one wants to see the government shut down, that impacts a lot of federal employees who are just regular people,” Hunter said. “At the same time, I don’t think that health care is something that should be compromised on.”

Haas reflected on the public opinion he has seen about the shutdown, and said that what is different this time is that a lot of people are actually blaming the president for the outcome, rather than the minority party.

“I think people were surprised … President [Donald] Trump was unwilling to negotiate, even if it meant significantly increasing hardship for people,” Haas said. “His willingness to tolerate pain by people is very high, higher than other presidencies have been … once you start to realize that, then it’s hard for Democrats to win.”

Hunter said that because of the hostile nature of the parties, shutdowns may be more likely to keep happening.

“I think that a lot of the rhetoric the Republican Party used definitely is going to have a negative impact on how some people view the Democrats,” Hunter said. “Looking forward to January, whenever they have to reach a deal again, I wouldn’t be surprised if the government shuts down again.”

Nataley Davis can be reached at davisn5@duq.edu