Harvard faculty members on Tuesday condemned the politics leading to the budget gridlock that caused the U.S. government to shut down parts of its machinery for the first time in nearly two decades.
Speaking in interviews, professors said they believed the current crisis is a symptom of broader governmental dysfunctionality undermining the functioning of American democracy.
“I’m furious. Unless the country finds a way to address [dysfunctionality] in a systematic way, we’re really hampered in our ability to function as a country,” government professor Robert H. Bates said. “I’m very discouraged.”
Government professor Beth Ann Simmons put it more bluntly: “The United States government is the epicenter of government dysfunctionality,” she said.
Many non-essential parts of the governmental machinery ground to a halt Tuesday after the Democratic-controlled Senate and the Republican-controlled House failed to reach a new budget agreement before the end of the day on Monday. The impasse has already furloughed about 800,000 federal workers and closed down national parks, monuments, and museums, and is expected to impact research, student loans, and visa sponsorship.
The shutdown came as no surprise to many professors who anticipated this climax of weeks-long partisan disagreement over the Affordable Care Act, the Obama administration’s signature healthcare law which began to take effect Tuesday despite the protestations of many Republicans.
“I expected it to happen,” said visiting professor of economics Jeffrey Zabel. “I think that holding the government hostage because you don’t happen to believe in a law that was passed is ridiculous.”
House Republicans opposed to the implementation of the Affordable Care Act have passed three bills that would enable essential federal funding while delaying the implementation of the healthcare law for another year.
However, the Democrats in the Senate shot down all three variations of the spending agreement, refusing to vote for a measure that would delay the implementation of the ACA.
Professors disparaged the inability of Congress to come to a compromise, particularly the refusal of many House Republicans to accept the ACA as a law.
“I believe it’s a publicity stunt in the worst possible way for a group of people to basically say, ‘We don’t like the Affordable Care Act,’” Medical School professor Sharon-Lise T. Normand said.
“I hope that the populace gets pissed off and kicks the Tea Party out of office,” Zabel said, alluding to the populist political movement that counts among its members many of the House Republicans who oppose the Affordable Care Act.
The current government shutdown, the first in 17 years, marks the culmination of heated debate about the appropriate degree of government involvement in the lives of citizens.
The Affordable Care Act, which aims to extend health insurance to nearly all Americans by requiring most uninsured citizens to purchase a healthcare plan, has polarized Congress since it was first passed in March 2010. While proponents applaud the law for providing nearly universal affordable health care, critics say that the law unfairly mandates citizens and companies to pay for a program they do not want.
Normand, who said she was “disgusted with the behavior of the people in Washington,” said she expects the shutdown will not adversely affect the implementation of the Affordable Care Act.
“I hope there will be no implications [from the shutdown], and I’m not sure there will be because there’s not much that can be done—the law is there,” Normand said.
Most professors said they believe the government will be back up and running within the next couple of weeks and hope representatives in Congress can work towards bipartisanship.
“The old-guard Republicans are rolling over in their graves,” Zabel said. “They understand politics is all about compromise, and we have this unprecedented situation where one side in particular doesn’t believe in compromise, which makes it difficult to undertake politics as we know it.”
