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Admin moved page What is the history of government shutdowns in the United States? to What is the history of government shutdowns in the United States
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[[File:Benjamin Civiletti (1979).jpg|thumb|left|250px|Figure 1. Benjamin Civiletti's decision on shutdown may have made them easier in later years. ]]
This history of government shutdowns in the United States is relatively recent. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, government shutdowns did not exist, but since 1980 the trend of government shutdowns has not only emerged but has increasingly been as a weapon in US politics. Why has this happened?
====Government Shutdowns in the 1990s====
[[File:Ap 126625286891 custom-f3c16057c80a180f23b215d389d5efbf44b05327-s800-c85.jpg|thumbthumbnail|left|250px|Figure 2. The long government shutdown between 1995 and 1996 may have led to the Republican's defeat in the 1996 elections. ]]
The first shutdown of the 1990s occurred during George H Bush's term from October 6-8th 1990. This shutdown was very minor in that it only affected a few thousand employees, primarily national park and museum employees were affected, with a cost to the economy between $2-3 million. In large part, this was because the shutdown occurred over a holiday period. The main dispute was Bush's desire to increase taxes and make major reductions to Medicare. Eventually, he and Congress compromised by not making large tax increases, with only wealthy individuals seeing their taxes rise, and reductions to government spending proposed were reduced.
====More Recent Shutdowns====
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Since the presidency of Barack Obama, shutdowns have emerged once again as a phenomenon of US politics. In 2013, Congress, this time divided between a Democratic-controlled Senate and a Republican-controlled House, came to major disagreements on the 2014 Continuing Appropriations Bill. Before 2013, shutdowns were often avoided, sometimes at the last minute, using short-term continuing appropriation bills or continuing resolutions (CRs), which effectively allowed government to operate using the previous fiscal year's budget levels. These were short-term solutions that often created uncertainty for government employees but were often resolved because both parties saw shutdowns as too politically costly. However, on October 1, 2013, a 16-day shutdown occurred due to many appropriation disagreements, in particular funding and timing of funding for the 2013 Affordable Care Act being a major source of contention. This bitterness over the new health bill and increased pressure from political groups to try to stop appropriation for this and other funding in the government led to a stalemate in Congress that led to the eventual shutdown. One key source of contention was the debt ceiling that can only be lifted by Congress.
====Summary====
Shutdowns entered American political discourse, in some ways, perhaps accidentally due to what was, at the time, a relatively minor disagreement about the FTCs FTC's role in regulating the economy that led to the Attorney General reinterpreting the 1884 Antideficiency Act to allow for government shutdowns. This decision could be argued has had a great effect on the US government and employees, as it now effectively set a precedent for the politicization of appropriation bills and made shutdowns possible. Whereas before it was not possible to shutdown the government, it became possible for even a minority party in Congress to delay or shutdown the government by demonstrating its disagreement about an issue, sometimes not even directly related to the appropriation in dispute. Shutdowns in 1995-96 had a major impact on US politics by making both parties avoid them for nearly twenty years, but that changed during President Obama's tenure and today's increased partisanship has also led to a more recent record-breaking, at least in time, government shutdown. <div class="portal" style="width:85%;"> ====Related DailyHistory.org Articles===={{#dpl:category=Political History|ordermethod=firstedit|order=descending|count=7}}</div>
====References====
