I have vivid memories of the federal shutdown on Oct. 1, 2013. Community Action, the organization that I am privileged to work with, relies on the federal government for well over half of our funding.
Our Head Start program had a new five-year grant slated to begin on the same day that Congress shut the government down. The fuel assistance program was gearing up to start taking applications for the winter. Our heating systems and weatherization teams were connecting local contractors with households needing to make their homes as energy efficient as possible.
But, the government shut down, and so did the cash to run those programs. We opened our doors anyway, trusting that our system of government (and our line of credit) would see us through. Sixteen days later, the shutdown ended.
What was the point of that shutdown? It was Obamacare, of course. The Republican-controlled House of Representatives was egged on by Tea Party Republican Senator Ted Cruz, who knew that he couldn’t get the Democratic Senate majority to defund the Affordable Care Act. They all knew that the president would veto it even if they did.
What was the cost? That GOP temper tantrum cost the U.S. economy an estimated $20 billion. It cost the government 6.6 million work days, which were ultimately paid for. The people who directly or indirectly depended on the government for their salaries or support were left hanging. It eroded even further the trust that Americans had in our government.
Who benefited? The right wing of the Republican Party did. They went back to their supporters and said if you want Obamacare repealed, conservative Supreme Court justices, and reduced taxes, then we need to take back the Senate and the White House.
In 2014, the Republicans took control of the Senate and the GOP had control of both houses of Congress for the first time since 2005. In fact, they had the largest Republican majority since 1929. And we know what happened in the 2016 election.
Last weekend there was a shutdown that barely lasted two days. What was the point of that one? Democrats wanted to get legal status for the so-called “Dreamers,” people who came to this country as children and who don’t have legal immigration status. They wanted to fund the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).
In fact, both of those issues could have passed the Republican-controlled Congress if they had been put to a vote. But Speaker Paul Ryan didn’t want to break the Hastert Rule (named after the admitted child molester Republican ex-speaker Dennis Hastert) which requires majority Republican support before a bill is brought to the floor.
And Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was holding on to both of these issues as bargaining chips to get a budget bill passed. What did the president want? It depended on the day and on what was happening on “Fox and Friends.”
The president, speaker, and Senate leader callously used nine million children needing health insurance and 1.8 million young people seeking legal status to advance their agenda. The president even ran a political ad calling Democrats complicit in murders committed by undocumented immigrants.
Who benefited from this shutdown? In the short run, the nine million children receiving their health insurance through CHIP are now secure for the next six years. The president has now said he will support a path to citizenship for a broader group of “Dreamers,” although that offer comes with other potential deal-breaking components. Over the next few weeks, the Democrats must find a way to protect the “Dreamers” and fund the operations of our federal government, including the safety net programs that even the president’s supporters rely on.
In the long run, the Democrats have an opportunity to reap enormous benefits. There have already been election victories in states Virginia, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Oklahoma and Washington. The House of Representatives can be won by Democrats, especially if Republican congressmen continue to flee Washington, D.C. (34 so far have said they will not seek re-election).
There is a renewed passion for grassroots electoral politics that is fueling a potential Democratic wave in the 2018 elections. There is a clear understanding that change comes through victory at the polls.
In January 1929, Republicans controlled the White House and the Congress. They presided over rising inequality and increasing instability in the economic system. The stock market crashed in October of that year. Republicans lost 52 seats in the House and eight in the Senate in the mid-term elections and ultimately lost control of the House. In 1932, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected president and both the House and the Senate were controlled by the Democrats.
What happened in 1929 and 2013 have clear lessons for today.
Clare Higgins, of Northampton, a former mayor of the city, is executive director of the nonprofit Community Action! of the Franklin, Hampshire and North Quabbin Regions. She can be reached at opinion@gazettenet.com.