On Oct. 1, the U.S. Congress failed to pass funding legislation for 2026, causing a government shutdown. This shutdown has been going on for over three weeks, as no agreement has been reached and is now being prepared to vote on after eight attempts so far.
With Congress not being able to agree on the funding, the threat of government workers being affected is lingering in the air. While our Ann Arbor V.A. (Department of Veterans Affairs) is not being affected, the workers are still worried about the situation. By interviewing V.A. social worker and case manager John Doe, we learn more about this.
“Right now at my workplace, it does not affect where I work in the health system because we are on a different funding stream, but the last I understood, there were about 900,000 federal workers that have been furloughed,” Doe said.
Doe believes that in order for it to affect his workplace, it would be another 12 months and that would be “catastrophic.”
The longest government shutdown in the past lasted 35 days from Dec. 2018 to Jan. 2019. Right now, the funding legislation is failing because the political parties do not agree. It’s also not helping that the House of Representatives is not in session, so they aren’t meeting.
“Both sides have their valid points of what they are trying to achieve,” Doe said. “I’m certainly not a spokesperson for any government organization but my personal feelings are that the Democrats are concerned about the funding for Obamacare, for the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and they are concerned about how it would affect Medicaid. The Republicans pretty much said that they would be willing to negotiate with the Democrats once the government starts again, but at this point, they are unwilling to negotiate with them on healthcare issues.”
Those with different viewpoints have planted their feet into the ground and are unwilling to back down on their strong beliefs. With the funding not being passed it’s not just affecting the government but also American citizens.
“The National Parks are struggling to maintain being open and Smithsonian, I believe, is practically closed,” Doe said. “If this drags on it will affect the jobs of law enforcement, military, and air traffic control.”
He thinks that it will hit the citizens the hardest if it starts to affect Medicare and Social Security. Doe is not a spokesperson for the V.A. so all his information on the issue right now is coming from the news and his observations along with job experience.
“I hope that both parties can work together and try and solve this issue,” Doe said, “because it’s ultimately the welfare of the American citizens that we are talking about.”
