At least for now, the government appears to have avoided a shutdown. Legislation has been passed in the senate which will keep the government running at full capacity through the end of September.
The Senate approved a measure that would lock in around $85 billion in spending cuts and thus, allow the government to stay in business. The Senate voted 73-26 to move the legislation onto the House.
Had the Senate not approved this legislation, all but the essential functions of the government would have been shut down next week. Unfortunately, this flirtation with disaster has become fairly commonplace in politics.
Republicans and Democrats have been ever further removed from each other than normal, with the Republicans even threatening to allow a shut down should they not get some of their own measures approved. Eventually the two sides were able to agree on cuts that, among other things, would see up to 100 small and medium-sized air traffic facilities risk closure.
"I hope that this practical, commonsense leadership will be a good sign for ... other things in the future," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada. "The work done by (the managers of the bill) should be and it is exemplary for what needs to follow."
Congress has been in sequestration for the past few weeks due to an inability to come to an agreement. A sequestration is a mechanism that immediately employs federal budget cuts when Congress cannot meet the budget goals it had set out for itself prior.
The Republican-led house is likely to pass this legislation without much of a fuss, and President Obama is almost certain to sign into law, as neither side wants the other outcome, which would be a near-complete shut down of all but the essential functions of government.
So far both Democrats and Republicans have put forth their own plans for balancing a budget that is quickly spiraling out of control, but neither sides have reached an agreement found to be amenable to both sides. The federal deficit is now almost $17 trillion, and in recent years government spending has led to budget deficits in excess of $1 trillion annually.
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