I see the situation this way: both chambers of congress
passed a bill which the president signed, and now the majority in one chamber
wants to get rid of it. They have tried and failed at the normal constitutional
ways of eliminating an existing bill. In order to get rid of it, they have
chosen to take the entire annual appropriations budget hostage and shut down
the government. Now, they want to present piecemeal the parts that are
particularly popular for approval so that they can point the finger at their opponents. Maybe they think
they can get every other piece approved and thereby eliminate the thing they
didn't like without ever having to pass a full appropriations bill.
I don’t care which party is in which position, I do not want
this government shutdown tactic to work because if it does, we’ll see it every
year from whichever party is most ornery about having lost a political battle.
The shutdown does major damage to the economy, not to mention halting CDC
research, FDA inspections, and all of the other things that are important to
our country but not part of the “essential” government functions. We do not
want it to happen frequently!
