Hooray, the 16-day shutdown has finally come to an end! But what did it teach us?
First and foremost, it taught us that we really love our national parks, museums and monuments. Who knew?
The day after the government announced it was shutting down, many Americans (and foreigners) took to social media. Far and wide, people were extremely upset that their ‘getaway’ was currently unavailable.
Parks like the Yellowstone National Park, museums like the Smithsonian and monuments like the Statue of Liberty remained closed for the full 16 days.
The closing of the monuments didn’t stop some people though. World War II veterans pushed through barricades (in their wheelchairs and all) to get into the WWII memorial.
“We didn’t come this far not to get in,” one veteran said.
Next, the shutdown taught us that we really enjoy television shows.
The shutdown not only affected individuals; it affected companies and organizations too. While most were negatively affected, one wasn’t: Netflix.
The hundreds of thousands of employees placed on furlough became quite bored with their time off.
So, what did they do?
They turned to Netflix, of course. Reports suggest that Procera, a company that monitors web activity, found many of the furloughed employees passed the time by indulging in their favorite shows on Netflix.
Some of the furloughed fan favorites included “30 Rock,” “Parks and Recreation,” “The Office” and “How I Met Your Mother.”
Jokes aside, the shutdown has affected many of us negatively.
It taught us that shutting down the government is not cheap. The 16-day shutdown definitely took a financial toll on America. According to CNN, the shutdown cost $24 billion. Yes, that would be billion with a ‘b’.
Because of this, the economy will grow at 2.4 percent instead of 3 percent this quarter. Thus, there are fewer jobs available for Americans.
Moreover, it taught us that the battle might have been won, for now. As it stands, the government is funded until Jan. 15. Ultimately this means that we may see round two of the Republican v. Democrat budget battle.
By Feb. 7, the debt ceiling issue will have been revisited.
According to CNN, some economists are worried that with this budget issue still looming, Americans will be afraid to invest, shop and even create jobs, as they will fear for what is to come. With the holiday season rapidly approaching, not shopping could severely hurt our economy.
In case you didn’t know, the biggest dispute over the budget has to do with the Health Care Reform Act, also known as ObamaCare.
In short, the majority of Republicans disagree with ObamaCare, while many Democrats support it.
As of Sunday morning, former Presidential nominee Sen. John McCain weighed in on this issue.
McCain referred to ObamaCare as a “fiasco,” and will continue to fight against it.
However, McCain did offer a comical, yet very plausible way to end the budget dispute.
"Send Air Force One out to Silicon Valley, load it up with smart people, bring them back to Washington and fix this problem," he said. "It's ridiculous. And everybody knows that."
