Letter: Can you shut down a business that you do not own or control?
Can you shut down a business that you do not own or control?
Can customers who shop at a business shut it down? Let’s examine that proposition.
Let’s use a restaurant as an example. The owner decides on the business location and what food will be served. He/she decides who will be hired and the quality of the food products that will be used. He/she is responsible on training the staff preparing the food and serving the customers.
If the business is losing money because there are not enough customers and the owner decides to close the business, did the customers shut down the business? The customers did not provide enough income for the business to thrive. I would say only the owner can shut down the business.
The business owner has choices that that be made to improve the business to attract more customers. He/she needs to determine what the real problems are. The menu might need improvement. The quality of food preparation and wait staff service might be improved. Maybe the prices are too low. Maybe the business needs to be moved.
If the changes do not work and the restaurant still loses money, the business might have to close, but it is still the owner’s decision not the customers.
Now let’s look at the federal government. The government agencies and departments report to the executive department headed by the President of the United States. The Congress provides the funds for the government. This is supposed to occur through the appropriation process that funds specific departments on separate bills. There is no law that says the congress needs to provide the level of funding requested by the president. If no funding is provided for a specific department, the president must shut down that department due to lack of funding (Anti-Deficiency Act).
Unfortunately, the appropriation process has not worked properly for many years. The big spenders (both parties) find it easier to get what they want by lumping all funding into a continuing resolution (CR) to fund the entire government.
When the congress passes a CR that funds the entire government, even if it is not at the level the president wants, the president has a decision to make. Accept or reject it. If there is no funding for the government, the President is the one shutting down the government, not Congress. The president can negotiate with the congress so that both sides get some of want they want.
I find it distressing to hear politicians claim that a person in congress voted to shut down the government when all they did was vote for spending at a different level than the president wanted. CONGRESS CANNOT SHUT DOWN THE GOVERNMENT, it does not report to them. The reasonability of Congress is to provide funding for the government and oversight of the executive branch. To claim the Congress shut down the government shows either great stupidity or a desire to deceive the American public.
I will close with the following quotes:
“I hope I shall possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man.”
–George Washington,
1st U.S. president
Who dares to teach must never cease to learn.”
–John Cotton Dana,
librarian and museum director
B Gogel
Huntingburg, IN
B Gogel, your analogy of a business vs government shutdown does not reflect the business model of the United States government. The reality is the people own the government and we hire/elect people to manage it. The CFO (Chief Financial Officer) of the government is the Congressional representatives we hire/elect. The Legislative branch has the power to make law and then fund government. The Executive Branch (The President of the United States) is hired/elected by the people, who also hire/elect the CFO (the Congress). The Executive branch hires the various agency branch chiefs (Cabinet) to operate our government according to the budget set by the CFO (Congress). The Judicial branch is appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate to play the referee between the two branches of government to insure that whatever law Congress passes and the President signs, do not impinge on the rights of its citizens.
Here is the proper way to compare how government operates to your restaurant analogy.
We have a group of investors who have given money to a restaurateur to operate a restaurant. To insure that their investment is protected, they hire a CFO to manage the finances of the restaurant. The CFO and restaurateur work together to make the restaurant successful. The restaurateur is spending more money than the restaurant is taking in. The CFO informs the restaurateur that he/she needs to curb spending or make cuts in staff to offset the losses or at some point the restaurant will fail. Two things could happen. The restaurateur ignores the CFO and runs the restaurant into bankruptcy or the CFO steps in behalf of the investors and shuts the restaurant down.
So you see there are two ways to shut down a restaurant and there are two ways to shut down a government.
Way #1
Article One; Section 8 of the United States Constitution gives Congress the “power of the purse” to oversee the Budget of the United States.
The Congress has very broad powers. Here are some of the key powers of the purse they have:
• To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;
• To borrow Money on the credit of the United States;
• To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;
• To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;
• To provide and maintain a Navy;
When Congressional Democrats and Republicans cannot agree on a budget and especially a budget that increases the national debt. The party in the majority has the right to refuse to borrow additional money to fund the government and not pass a budget or a continuing budget resolution thus shutting the government down. This is because The Congress of The United States passed the The Antideficiency Act (ADA), in 1884 which, is legislation enacted by the United States Congress to prevent the incurring of obligations or the making of expenditures (outlays) in excess of amounts available in appropriations or funds. So yes Congress can shut down the government.
Way # 2
Can the President shut down the government? Yes the President can by vetoing a Congressional Budget or continuing budget resolution forcing the Antideficiency Act to kick in.
Government shut downs have occurred 12 times with Congress being responsible for 9 of the 12 shut downs. 6 additional shut downs did not occur because the government had surplus operating capital to work with for the few days, past the budget deadline, it took to resolve the budget impasse.
I concur that my example with the restaurant is not exactly the way the government works, but I was looking for a quick example that most people would understand. The point that congress cannot shut down the government remains.
Let’s consider which office decides to close the federal government during severe weather or another emergency. The United States Office of Personnel Management (OPM) decides when government offices are closed in the Washington, DC area. Congress has no control over OPM. It only provides funding.
That does not mean that congress is never responsible for shutting down the government. If congress does not provide funding for the government, the president and the executive branch must shut down all non-essential functions due to the Anti-Deficiency Act.
The president can rightly blame the congress for the shut down, but the congress has no power to enforce laws, only the executive branch can do that.
In my lifetime, there has never been a case where the entire congress proposed providing zero funding for a government department. The disagreement is always on the level of funding.
Let’s look at an example:
During President Bill Clinton’s tenure, there was a budget dispute with Speaker Newt Gingrich and his party in the House of Representatives. The dispute did not involve all government departments. The dispute was on the level and appropriateness of some of Clinton’s spending proposals. President Clinton wanted more growth in spending than Gingrich’s party. Funding for all the departments was provided, just not as much as Clinton wanted. President Clinton did not approve all the appropriations bills that were not in dispute. The funding for the Interior department was not in dispute, but Clinton closed the museums and the National Parks to put pressure on the other side. He did this by saying Speaker Newt Gingrich and his party in the House had closed down the government. HOW CAN THAT BE SINCE THE GOVERNMENT DOES NOT WORK FOR THE CONGRESS? The corrupt mainstream press played along and told the American public that Speaker Newt Gingrich and his party in the House shut down the government. That Lie lives today in many people’s minds. Since the other party was being blamed, Clinton made sure that the public felt the pain by shutting down services that the public wanted and was used to getting even if the departments that provided those services were not part of the dispute. The result was that Clinton got about 90 % of what he wanted because most of the media demonized the other party. This was not a good result for the country.
If congress can shut down the entire government, then they should be able to shut down individual parts of it they consider wasteful. Congress has never been able to do this.
Why do have great concern on this topic?
Because the American public is not getting the whole truth about the level of government spending. Rather than arguing the benefits of a 1-2 % increase versus a 3-5 % increase in a department, the Democrat party accuses the other side of shutting down the government if the Democrat president does not get the level of funding he wants.
This make most republicans cowards and deprives the public of an honest debate.
I have never heard a Democratic president or Democratic congress accused of shutting down the government.
Here! Here! Mr. Hensley! Looks like you paid attention in Government class. It would seem that B Gogel did NOT!
Technically, our government is run by the House & the Senate, NOT the President! I think the President’s Executive Order ability should be even MORE limited than it is now. Obama has passed some very questionable Executive orders during his term!
Rock on, Mr. Hensley!
Silent Majority,
I got an A in Government and also took two courses on the Constitution from Hillsdale College.
Organizations are run through executive power. Article II of the US Constitution , Section 1. “The executive Power shall be vested in the President of the United States of America.”
Congress provides funding for the government, passes the laws that the executive branch should enforce, and oversight of the executive branch.
Under Obama, the presidency has become even more powerful because the congress does not use the power of the purse to stop him.
Silent Majority,
You were off on this one, but I think you had good posts in the past and I hope that you continue to respond on this forum.
Again, Mr. Silent Majority, whoever you are. The Congress runs the government? What in the hell is that? It looks like somebody else wasn’t paying attention in eighth grade civics.
Folks it’s a lot like my marriage, I am the President of my family but my wife (Congress) has the bank books. Come October 1st, if she doesn’t transfer money from our savings account to my checking account, I have no money to spend. She has effectively shut down my government down until money gets transferred.
If you review the link you will see that Congress has been responsible for most of the government shut downs under the Anti defieciency Act. It is against the law for the executive branch to spend money except essential offices. Funding over abortion in the 70’s shut down the government more than any other issue. Divided Congress is usually the culprit.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/news/wonk/wp/2013/09/25/here-is-every-previous-government-shutdown-why-they-happened-and-how-they-ended/
Silent Majority, don’t forget the executive powers of the President. The President also controls foreign policy and the most powerful tool called the Presidential Veto. That is why a Congress that negotiates with a President can avoid Presidential shut downs of budget vetos.