Provided that it does not last much longer, the government shutdown that occurred Tuesday when Congress failed to agree on a federal budget bill will have little impact on Boston University programs, according to university officials.
“The federal government has issued some information on student aid, for instance,” said BU spokesman Colin Riley. “Essentially, they feel the impact is going to be minimal.”
Programs that use multi-year appropriations or mandatory funding, such as Federal Pell Grants and student loans, will continue to operate through the shutdown, according to the U.S. Department of Education’s official contingency plan.
“Obligations and payments from these programs may continue, dependent on the length of the lapse,” the plan stated. “Only those grant activities which, if not continued, would prevent or significantly damage the execution of funded functions … will continue on a limited basis after a lapse of one week and continue through a short-term shutdown.”
A shutdown lasting more than one week will have more noticeable effects on educational institutions, the plan stated.
“A protracted delay in department obligations and payments beyond one week would severely curtail the cash flow to school districts, colleges and universities, and vocational rehabilitation agencies that depend on the department’s funds to support their services,” the plan stated.
Political science professor and chair Graham Wilson said the effects of the shutdown on BU students, as well as citizens of Boston, are unknown at this point.
“The short answer is: nobody knows,” Wilson said. “We know some of the obvious things, like if you wanted to visit the U.S.S. Constitution today, you’d be out of luck because the federal parks are closed.”
The extent of the shutdown depends on how far Republicans in Congress are willing to go to prevent Obamacare from coming into effect, Wilson said.
“This is another milestone in the decay of the workings of our system of government,” Wilson said. “That decay is partially due to extreme partisanship, and I’d have to say that extreme partisanship is currently coming from the right wing.”
Political science professor Douglas Kriner said the current government shutdown is unprecedented because unlike the shutdown under President Bill Clinton 17 years ago, the shutdown is in response to the Affordable Care Act and not solely an issue of the federal budget.
“The only way to stop Obamacare from being fully implemented into law is to hold the budget and the debt ceiling hostage for it,” Kriner said.
BU may stop receiving federal research funding, Kriner said, if the shutdown lasts much longer.
“If you’re in the sciences at a university, I think that a lot of the NSF [National Science Foundation] and other types of federal resources are temporarily down,” he said. “The EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] is laying off people, so if you rely on them for data and other sources of information, you’re not going to be able to get it.”
Republicans are mainly opposed to Obamacare because it will be expensive for the federal government, Kriner said.
“The administration argues that, according to its projection, in the long run, it [Obamacare] will save money, but those projections are inherently unreliable so there’s a cost issue,” he said. “On the other hand, a lot of ‘Tea Partiers’ say that the individual mandate forcing you to buy coverage is an infringement on personal liberties and freedoms.”
Under our current government system, the only way Republicans can change the healthcare situation is to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Kriner said.
“The fact is, it [Obamacare] is the law of the land,” Kriner said. “There’s no way for them to use the constitutional methods provided to undo it.”
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The democrats (and therefore the majority of media types) don’t seem to want to understand or accept that what’s going on now is EXACTLY how our government is supposed to work – instead they’re simply labeling ‘dissent’ as the intransigence of terrorists, arsonists, anarchists, etc – not especially wise as a negotiating tactic for certain. The same group keeps acting as if this is the first or worst governmental shutdown ever and that one party not bowing down to the other seems to suggest that the end of the republic is near. HOGWASH! Government has been shuttered close to 20 times in the past couple decades … and each time it has emerged better for the process. That stated, however, if there’s ANYTHING different about this time, it’s that our president has absolutely NO RELATIONSHIP/CREDIBILITY with the opposition (just as his credibility is crumbling internationally too) – and this has zippo to do with race, it simply highlights the inexperience of the man himself and his loathing of our basic process – an in many respects for the people.
What’s happened here is that the democrats jammed a bill (ACA) through the legislative process and the president signed it into law when a large majority of the population (including EVERY member of the opposition party) opposed the measure! Now if this were a law naming a bridge or symbolically designating a special day for something otherwise trivial – you SHOULD expect those in the dissent to appropriately ‘pick their hill to die on’ as something else and move along. However, when this law impacts 20+ percent of the national economy and in fact many of the underlying principles on which the country was founded … well you truly need to stop inhaling when you think the opposition should simply accept ‘the law of the land’ as some form of final edict – cause it ain’t gonna happen! Moynihan advised Clinton as Emmanual advised Obama … you need widespread support to pass big bills … and it simply didn’t exist at the time. Rather than accepting ‘small ball’ and creating some decent progress on a nationally thorny issue, our president bet everything on this poorly conceived piece of legislation that no one read before passing it in the darkest hour of night.
If the ‘law of the land’ concept held any water, Don’t Ask Don’t Tell would still be the law …. Prohabition would still be the law …. as would DoMA, Slavery, etc etc etc. We live in a constitutional democracy and in our system it’s REQUIRED that majorities of people agree … and when they don’t, expect changes!
President Obama, much to the disappointment of many, was indeed reelected … but so were a whole bunch of congressional leaders too. One of the biggest differences LOST on the mainstream is that many congressional elections are decided on ‘single issues’ where it’s almost never the case with national elections. The tea party types are doing EXACTLY what their constituencies want them to do … it would be beyond naive to expect them to blindly acquiesce.
The president needs to stop being a petulant partisan and start leading … albeit a very difficult task for a man who’s never had to do so in his life. He needs to be ‘the adult in the room’ instead of a distraction. The hugely successful Bill Belichick would NEVER publicly throw one of his players (or groups of players) under the bus – because it’s just simply NOT how you motivate people, and like that legendary coach (substitute Parker if you like), our commander in chief HAS to change his ways. This was taught to me as a BU SMG student almost 30 years ago and it’s as true today as ever!
The ACA is a terrible piece of legislation … it was essentially a ‘rough draft’ turned in as the final exam … and now the student is demanding an A because he/she meant well with the thesis even if none of the details were actually completed or blanks filled out.
Only when a president leads can this sort of gridlock be broken – and THIS president no longer has the credibility to lead.
Sure. A law was passed by the Legislative Branch, upheld by the Executive Branch, blessed by the Judicial Branch by a President who campaigned on it and was elected twice….a bill COMPLETELY UNRELATED to budget talks, which the Tea Party is blackmailing the country with, yet somehow it’s the Democrats’ fault. May I have what you’re smoking?
“However, when this law many of the underlying principles on which the country was founded.” Please show me exactly where in the Constitution it says that it is not allowed to offer affordable healthcare for all? I see something about “the right to life”….which of course is impossible if you’re dying of disease, something about the “pursuit of happiness”…which is impossible to do if you can’t even treat your own pain, something about “liberty”, which you would be stripped off once your healthcare bills would make you bankrupt….
“The hugely successful Bill Belichick would NEVER publicly throw one of his players (or groups of players) under the bus – because it’s just simply NOT how you motivate people, and like that legendary coach (substitute Parker if you like),”
Bill Belichick: See Welker, Wes.
Jack Parker: See Glass, Andrew
The Defense of Marriage Act was passed by the legislative branch, upheld by the executive branch and sustained several judicial challenges before ultimately succumbing to ‘the will of the people’ … We are a country of People and laws and this rotten piece of legislation has NEVER held a 50%+ favorability rating. It’s a terrible law and should be re-written (not eliminated, but made more logical, practical and likely to endure BUT that won’t happen because the guy in the White House is unwilling to negotiate a thing – in spite of what he represents. He will uphold and enforce the components which he sees fit and will ignore and delay others WHICH IS ILLEGAL. We have a process for managing delays and deferrals and he’s intentionally stepped outside of the law … startling for a man who professes to be a constitutional scholar and who is sworn to uphold the constitution.
And as to where to look for the founding principles … see ‘Taxation without representation’.
You’re patently wrong when you suggest that this president was re-elected on the issue of healthcare … he ran a masterful campaign, muddied the issues in a classic Chicago style and had a lapdog media in his pocket at every step to do his dirty work .. but in fairness and regardless of tactics, he did win. That said, as president, he’s supposed to heal the divisions and move forward representing ALL The People (rising above the politics) and yet he’s as intransigent as ever with his constant and unrelenting attacks on republicans, conservative ideologies and anyone who disagrees with his perspectives. He’s a terrible leader .. perhaps the worst ever!
Welker is let go because he put himself and his insistence on a big money contract above the team (think Vinitari) and that’s not consistent with Patriot ideology (and beyond that, their ‘fiscal conservatism’ didn’t want to ‘spend the money’ … the wealthy don’t get to be so by spending foolishly which is a lesson that’s lost in the healthcare debate altogether.) Sad to see him go, but we’ll survive without him … and the franchise will be just fine for having made the decision.
The simple fact is that we’ll not agree (probably ever) on healthcare … the flaming liberal in certain people will rush ahead and sign up for something they’ve not read, where the coverages are far from being defined, the costs anything but known, the systems may or may not be secure and the penalties for noncompliance or opting out onerous or not yet clear/defined and set to be imposed by a partisan IRS … sure, that makes a ton of sense down the life, liberty and pursuit of happiness path. Me, I’ll probably wait a bit longer … eat properly, not smoke, be sure to get my daily exercise and see how this all develops. We’ll be a nation of people who are all insured and NONE of us can get a doctors appointment or care because there are not enough doctors and facilities – to my thinking, getting health ‘care’ is FAR more important than getting health ‘insurance’ … we be a fully subscribed club of under served members looking over the fence at the ‘other guys’ who’ve figured out how to continue what they’ve always had that’s just now paid for privately and labelled however necessary to not rock a boat.
Seriously though, you go sign up for healthcare … if the media is correct, the number is really easy to remember just as the past leader of the Choom Gang told us from the Rose Garden … dial is 1-800-F**KYO … certainly no intransigence there and SO much respect for the office he now holds.