After weeks of bipartisan ping pong played across lines of agreement and compromise without resolution, a government shutdown ensued.

On Oct. 1, without a budgetary agreement for a spending bill, the federal government shut down. What was meant to address overspending in order to ensure the maintenance of vital programs dissolved into disorderly chaos that immediately targeted the country’s most vulnerable and fundamental pillars of domestic functioning.

Who did this affect? At-risk families, such as pregnant women and children who rely on WIC, (Women, Infants, and Children’s)
nutritional supplement programs.

Low-income families that depend on SNAP (food stamps), which affect in excess of 42 million households. Other sensitive populations that were affected included Americans with disability benefits and veterans.

While Democrats and Republicans held a stalemate to flex their political positioning around the need for spending to ensure America’s most vulnerable and vital programs remain intact, they directly and immediately compromised them.

While the United States continues to flounder with an overwhelming number of needs, politicians engaged in a rudimentary schoolyard game of chicken to address complex, urgent budgetary demands. If the issue is overspending, then review what is spent and make it more efficient. Fight each other with innovative ideas, creative planning, revisions in productivity, and effectiveness.

It should not go unnoticed that Congress members on both sides of party lines continued to collect their paychecks during the shutdown, as they receive constitutional protection to be paid by the U.S. Treasury.

While federal employees were asked to continue to show up for work to keep the country’s infrastructure running, politicians continued to be compensated for stubborn indecision.

There have been federal shutdowns in the past, ranging from one day to 34 days in 2019, but the recent shutdown surpassed 43 days.

The United States is already raw and fatigued by the recent challenges of a pandemic, civil unrest, and the cost-of-living increases.

The Republicans and Democrats’ willingness to engage in rogue children’s play has shown the country that they are tone deaf and disengaged from the heartbeat of America.