Word on the Street — Government Shutdown and Congressional Change

For 16 days in October, the United States federal government was in a state of indefinite, partial shutdown because of gridlock in Congress. During that time legislators had been failing to compromise while hundreds of thousands of government employees went without pay, but on Oct.16 Congress came to a temporary agreement on the federal budget. ICC students were asked if they felt that, with this crisis resolved, the political climate in Congress will change.

 

 

Lindy DeFord, 42, of East Peoria

“I don’t think they’ll come out changed. They haven’t changed too much over the course of the last several years, so I don’t think they’ll change too much.”

 

 

 

 

Neil Devlin, 66, of East Peoria

“I don’t think it’s going to be changed, but I don’t know. Politics has been around a longtime. The Founding Fathers had terrible political arguments and fights, and it got very personal… I hope it would be better, but I fear it won’t be.”

 

 

 

Eric Johnson, 19, of Peoria

“I don’t know–it might [change]. Because they’re not working together, so people might get upset with different things, and then the politicians might get upset with each other and start making different things happen. I don’t know… I’m not really sure.”

 

 

 

Tiahan Scovil, 19, of Pekin

“Well they need to be changed! I don’t think it’s okay just to do a shutdown because a lot of people lost their jobs for that amount of time. I think it will be changed. I don’t know how, but I think it needs to be changed.

 

 

 

Josh Portscheller, 26, of Metamora

“I think it’s going to make the American people appreciate the government more than what they did before it shut down. …It’s kind of a way to just say ‘Oh, look what you don’t have, and now you’ll be happy when you do have it back.’”

 

 

 

Rachel Noe, 19, of Metamora

“I highly doubt it. I think the Democrats are still going to be for the Democrats and the Republicans will be for Republicans. No, I don’t think it’s going to change. The Republicans are still Republicans; Democrats are still Democrats.”