Little cause to celebrate as shutdown ends

Americans have little cause to celebrate this morning even though Congress finally ended the government shutdown. Possibly the most noteworthy part of the negotiations that led to the resolution of the fiscal crisis is the leadership role played by women leaders in the Senate. Nevertheless, good citizenship requires at least taking a look at the short, medium, and long-term results of the bill spelled out in the Decoder Wire (Christian Science Monitor) by Peter Grier:

Yes, it’s finally over. The US government reopened Thursday morning, and the Treasury prepared for a normal day of paying the nation’s bills after Congress approved a bill to raise the debt ceiling and end the 16-day federal shutdown.

President Obama signed the measure into law shortly after midnight Thursday.
In the short term, the resolution of the fiscal crisis represented a decisive defeat for congressional Republicans. At the urging of tea party-aligned conservative members, the House GOP at first demanded the defunding of Obamacare in return for continued government spending. What it got was a slight tightening of procedures for the verification of income levels for those applying for Obamacare subsidies.

RECOMMENDED: The debt ceiling battle explained in 12 charts

 

The legislation also sets up a process for a House-Senate conference on a long-term budget and tax plan for the nation.

“We fought the good fight. We just didn’t win,” said House Speaker John Boehner in an interview with an Ohio radio station.

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