Government Shutdown 2013: Why The US Government Shutdown Is A Gasoline IV For The Economy

It was just revealed in President Obama's speech Tuesday that the Republican party believes their current strategy gives them the most leverage. Please keep in mind, the 'current strategy' is 'taking the U.S. Government hostage.'

Government officials should not have to leverage. They should not be this calculating. They should compromise. Hundreds of thousands of peoples' lives and livelihoods are at stake at the mercy of these Washington buffoons. These people have no strategy other than to completely oppose the other party regardless of whether or not they're right.

Their strategy has become a Yankees vs. Red Sox strategy: 'I don't care who wins, as long as it's not the other team.' This is truly disgusting, infantile, and unacceptable. Most of all, this is fair to nobody, and they don't care because it doesn't affect their lives.

It occurred to me this afternoon that most politicians have little to no knowledge of economic or financial concepts. They don't understand that this is not and SHOULD NOT BE about party favoritism. The path to prosperity in this country is through economic growth and technological advancement. Eighty-five percent of the U.S. budget goes to Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, military and interest expenses. A meager 15 percent of the budget is actually up for grabs as discretionary spending.

I do not think any of these politicians realize this. I do not believe they have ever cracked an economics book, because it is likely not an important study concentration for political science majors. What will happen is a collapse of our currency, a crippling of our economy that will slough ENTIRE percentage points off of our GDP and...yes, Obama is right...we WILL fall into a recession. A recession occurs when there is negative growth for two fiscal quarters in a row, and we are certainly in the fast lane headed for number one. What Congress does not realize is that a recession unfolds within weeks. Not years, weeks. When the government is shutdown, international trade does not occur. When the country defaults on its debt, confidence plummets. This is no longer a game of numbers, it is a game of confidence and expectations. Our dollar will be obliterated, the fuse on the powder-keg that is economic destruction will be ablaze. We'll see another Bear Stearns-like event, in triplicate.

Right now, corporate expectations are reflected through the bloodbath that is beginning in the stock market and slowly oozing through the capillaries of the U.S. like a disease. The disease is Congress, and they refuse to take the medication of compromise to cure the disease. It is time to lay down the swords, forget the game of who is to blame, and pass a bill for the sake of the American people. Every day that ticks by erodes the economic progress this country has struggled make in the last few years. This government shutdown will kill the country we love from the inside out, like injecting gasoline into an ailing patient's IV.

What is going on in Washington is anything but American. It is a disservice to every single hard-working American citizen, government employee or not.