What’s really at stake with a government shutdown

The truth is that a government shutdown is not Armageddon, but it is a terrible deal for the American people.

The current shutdown drama, like previous ones that I have observed during three decades in Washington and for the last 22 years heading an organization dedicated to making the government more effective, represents an abject failure of our elected representatives to meet their responsibilities to the public.

Although a shutdown has very serious ramifications, the truth is it will not interfere with the bulk of our government’s activities. Two thirds of government spending is mandatory and thus exempt from the current battle, including Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. And major investments approved during the last two years, including funding for the Inflation Reduction Act and the bipartisan infrastructure law, represent multi-year expenditures that will be forthcoming irrespective of congressional inaction.