Government Shutdown Deal is Government Blackmail

With an overdramatic flourish, Congressional Republicans and Democrats struck a last-minute deal on Friday after a long battle. With only an hour remaining before a shutdown of the federal government, Democrats agreed to $39 billion in spending cuts, while Republicans agreed to end calls to eliminate funding for Planned Parenthood.

Republicans have objected to federal funding of the group based on the fact that it provides abortion services, but this battle is a diversion of attention from the facts. Planned Parenthood is not a national chain of abortion clinics. It provides numerous services for women's health, like breast cancer screening, STD testing, and contraception. This issue is a moot point, however, when one considers the fact that no federal money goes to administering abortions.

It's times like this that we see the true colors that politics have taken now, where one side has a win-at-all-costs attitude and one side is willing to compromise. Republicans held the government and Planned Parenthood hostage while the Democrats had already offered a deal of $32 billion in cuts, but Republicans refused.

This is reminiscent of the battle earlier this fiscal year over the expiration of the Bush tax cuts, where Republicans held hostage extending unemployment benefits for the families that have been devastated by the recession. Not only is this offensive to the millions of Americans struggling to make ends meet, it is in conflict with the idea of fiscal responsibility that is so central to their message.

The tax revenue lost from these temporary cuts was huge, but in particular, the tax on those making over $250,000 would cost roughly $32 billion alone. This amount easily covers a majority of what politicians are bickering over.

Is this going to be the story for the rest of the year? Are we to expect Republicans to play every card while Democrats fold every hand?

John Boehner likes to muse about how his party controls only one-half of one-third of the government, yet the Democrats they face have proven themselves to be innocuous. Democrats had every opportunity to pass a budget when they essentially controlled Washington with both houses of Congress and the presidency. They let it slip away because of constant infighting and a total lack of unity among their party.

Even if the worst occurred and there was a shutdown, Republicans had been running the spin machine early on and were ready to blame President Obama's leadership for the debacle. Ever since the last election cycle, it seems that this has been the ultimate goal of the new, Tea Party-influenced Republicans. They seek to undermine President Obama at all costs, no matter who gets hurt.

The Republican Party has sent the country a clear message in fighting so hard over what amounts to so little in the end. It is willing to throw the unemployed, federal workers, U.S. soldiers, and anyone else it can into the fire so as long as it can look as if it is making an ideological stand. Many families of service members depend on the government each month to pay the bills, and the issue of abortion and miniscule differences in spending are not worth their livelihoods.