Venerdì in tarda serata, a quasi un’ora dalla mezzanotte, il governo federale degli Stati Uniti ha raggiunto un accordo sul bilancio, che ha impedito la paralisi del governo americano.
A tornare sull’argomento, Carisa Frisby , che ci dà la sua opinione in merito a quello che è stato il più grosso taglio alla spesa nella storia degli Stati Uniti.
A seguito dell’accordo, il Pentagono riceverà meno di quanto non volessero i repubblicani e la spesa per l’istruzione non verrà abbassata.
I repubblicani hanno anche approvato i finanziamenti all’organizzazione per la pianificazione familiare, che era uno dei problemi principali, nonostante si trattasse di aspetti estranei alla spesa del governo federale.
Un accordo raggiunto grazie alle concessioni fatte ai democratici, che hanno incassato risultati significativi.
Dalle concessioni pro ambiente, nonostante i previsti tagli alle spese per la gestione di parchi nazionali e monumenti tra cui (ma non solo) il monumento a Washington, i musei Smithsonian, e il Grand Canyon, per citarne alcuni, .ma anche quelli sulla sanità e l’istruzione pubblica.
Salvati in extremis anche gli stipendi dei militari, ai quali era stato detto che avrebbero ricevuto la metà della loro busta paga successiva e poi nient’altro fino a quando non si sarebbe arrivati ad un .accordo.
Un accordo che ha impedito la paralisi di governo e che è stato accolto da entrambi le parti con grande soddisfazione.
Late Friday evening the United States federal government reached an agreement on the budget. The main issue that was causing the problems was the Democrats funding of Planned Parenthood and abortion services. These items are unrelated to the federal government spending, yet were threatening a shut down.
President Obama has drawn criticism from both Democrats and Republicans about waiting too long to get involved in negotiations. He spoke on the matter very little from February 19th until April 2, according to Republican aides.
The shutdown threatened National Parks and monuments including (but not limited to) the Washington Monument, the Smithsonian museums, and the Grand Canyon to name a few. It also threatened to shut down the Cherry Blossom Parade due to the fact that part of the parade route was to cross federal land.
Military members were told that they would receive half of their next pay check and then nothing else until an agreement could be made. Many families went out and stocked up on food items that could be frozen. Family Readiness Groups for military units sent out information about how to handle their finances in the case of a government shutdown.
The agreement that stopped the shutdown was made to cut spending instead of adding new programs. This included items that Democrats wanted to include for health care. As the list was read off, it was met by Republican applause.
Military members and government officials working abroad can now breathe easy. Both the Republicans and Democrats made sacrifices to ensure that people received their paychecks and that the United States federal government would not shut down. Of course negotiations never should have gotten to a point of a shut down threat. Hopefully President Obama and whoever follows will take a more proactive approach in the future.
Carisa Frisby