Olympian weighs in on the government shutdown

The government was shut down on Tuesday, Oct. 1 due to the two parties being unable to agree upon a budget. The Republicans wanted to get rid of Obamacare; however, the Democrats insisted on keeping it. Because of their conflict, our federal government was shut down for 16 days, and we all had to deal with the fallout. Is our government helping us with our problems as a country? Or is it creating more?

We at The Olympian believe that we need assistance and guidance from the government, but so far, they’ve resorted to shutting down the government instead of resolving a conflict that could’ve ended in compromise. People are blaming each party specifically, but is there really just one party to blame?

Republicans and Democrats both led us into this issue because of their inability to solve a problem among themselves and within a time limit. That is simply not acceptable. We need our government to run smoothly. We rely on the fact that our government will be there when we need it most, and in this case it wasn’t.

We need change and we need it now. We need strong forward thinking leaders who can lead a country effectively. JSA is helping us all with that by training adolescents and young adults how to properly debate and compromise. We need these people to work up to government jobs and help save us from our own government. We need hope that things can get better for us through our government’s actions.

During a recent speech given by President Obama, a reporter shouted out the question, “Are you going to do this all over again in a few months?” as he was walking out. He was undoubtedly referring to the the next budget and debt agreement. President Obama answered with a simple, straightforward “no.” We hope he’s right.