Well, the government is currently shut down for the first time in seven years. I was almost hesitant to write an article about it because there’s a chance it will be outdated by the time it’s printed, but I’ve done a lot of research on this and I think it’s important to clear the air on the circumstances that caused this, even if it’s over by the time this is posted.

Every year, Congress needs to pass a bill that approves all of the spending the government does. This bill allocates where the funds go and how much money we spend on everything. A shutdown happens when Congress doesn’t agree on where the money should go, so the government shuts down due to lack of funds. This results in a ton of agencies closing down, and a lot of people working without pay. We’ve had 10 shutdowns since 1976.

As I’m sure we’ve all heard on social media, it’s true that the Democrats are the cause of the shutdown by refusing to pass the bill as its written. The things that the Democrats have dug their heels in for all have to do with healthcare. They want a reversal of Trump’s Medicaid cuts, an extension of the Biden-era tax credit that made health insurance cheaper for millions, and they want stipulations that cut funding to government health agencies removed.

I like to get both sides of the story on any topic to dispel misinformation, but the only misinformation I could find was some articles claiming that the Democrats caused the shutdown because they wanted free healthcare for illegal immigrants, and I couldn’t verify that one at all. All of the programs mentioned are only for American citizens.

As for my opinion on the shutdown, I have to admit that I am not unbiased on this issue. I am self-employed and one of the main challenges to being self-employed has always been affording health insurance. It’s so much more expensive to buy on your own. However, through the tax credit that Biden signed into law in 2021 (an original version of the credit was started by Obama in 2014, but the 2021 law increased the credit amount and raised the income limits), I was able to get a great BlueCross BlueShield insurance plan for around $50 a month, as opposed to nearly $600 a month for only myself without the credit.

That is a game-changing amount of support for small business owners like myself, among millions of Americans that do not have employer-paid healthcare. I would hate to see that end. I am strongly hoping that Congress will reach some sort of compromise to keep this credit in the funding bill. The Medicaid cuts also have a chance of severely hurting our local rural hospitals, so I would like to see that reversed as well.

But there’s also another issue with the shutdown that may cause it to last longer than wanted. There is a discharge petition currently making its rounds through Congress that will force the Department of Justice to release all of the documents related to Jeffrey Epstein. The petition is headed by Rep. Thomas Massie, a Republican from Kentucky, and it needs 218 signatures to pass. It currently has 217 mostly-Democrat votes, due to Trump’s bizarre opposition to it.

There is a willing signature number 218, but she hasn’t been sworn in yet. Arizona recently had a special election to replace their representative, Raúl Grijalva, after his death earlier this year. His daughter, Democrat Adelita Grijalva, won the election over two weeks ago, but still hasn’t been sworn in as an official member of Congress.

In contrast, there have been two other special elections this year, and both of the Republican winners were sworn into Congress the very next day after winning, so this isn’t exactly a good look. Mike Johnson has been asked several times why he hasn’t sworn her in yet, despite her being there in DC and asking to be sworn in. He originally deflected the issue, but he now claims that he will swear her in as soon as the shutdown ends, which is basically just using her as leverage to ask the Democrats which they want more: cheaper healthcare or the release of the Epstein Files.

I think it’s a shame to choose between the two at all. The average American deserves access to medical care without being driven into debt, and the victims of Jeffrey Epstein deserve justice. This is one of the times where I feel the average American’s voice isn’t being heard because our representatives would rather play politics than actually represent our needs. My heart goes out to the people missing their paychecks, and I am praying that this shutdown will be over by the time this gets printed.

Taryn Ogletree is a local small business owner and author with previous experience of several years in finance.