As to reiterate a theme we’ve been broadcasting this week, we’d like to recommend you stay informed about issues of local and national importance — namely the implementation of the Affordable Care Act and the contents of this year’s Clery Act compliance report, released Monday.
A new concern arose Monday at midnight when, for the first time in 17 years, the United States Congress failed to pass a new national budget or a continuing resolution. So the federal government shut down, halting many functions American citizens rely on daily.
A selection of the shutdown’s effects: Many national offices, including national parks and regulatory agencies, have closed; the economy will likely be negatively affected; and paychecks for federal employees will be delayed.
That includes the paychecks for the Ohio University students — roughly 800 of them, based on numbers from the 2012-13 academic year — who are employed as part of a federal work-study program. It will also completely stall the application process for any prospective grants faculty members have applied for, as our front-page story details.
The underlying and more politically relevant message here is that, essentially, Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives bear responsibility for the government shutdown — all in the name of objection to the Affordable Care Act.
“All of this is entirely preventable if the House chooses to do what the Senate has already done — and that’s the simple act of funding our government without making extraneous and controversial demands in the process, the same way other Congresses have for more than 200 years,” President Barack Obama said in an address Monday.
As college students watching from the sidelines, it’s our responsibility to take note of the tactics being displayed in Congress and the effects they have on the country.
It’s often said that younger generations have the chance to correct the shortcomings of their elders when their own time comes. The showdown and shutdown, as Obama and countless others have expressed, is undoubtedly one of those opportunities.
Oh, and class will still be in session, federal government or not.
Editorials represent the majority opinion of The Post’s executive editors.
