Students react to the government shutdown

Story by: Andrew Mechum

With neither the Republicans in the House nor the Democrats in the Senate able to reach an agreement on a continuing resolution to keep the government running, the federal government shutdown last Monday.  While both parties have been vocal about how the shutdown will affect America and who's to blame, most Americans feel their government isn't listening to the very people who voted them into office.

Many UM students feel that the shutdown was wholly unnecessary and the result of useless, and often times, mean spirited bickering between the two parties.  Students we spoke with were quick to lay blame on one side or the other but all agreed that both parties are at least in part to blame for the failure to keep the government running.

Gorden Hunt, political science major

“Hopefully this is a wake-up call for Americans to get more involved and start paying more attention to what’s happening in the White House,” said Gorden Hunt, a political science major.

Hunt went on to add that much of what we see in the media is simply a distraction from what is really going on in Washington and that American's need to start paying attention to how their politicians are spending our money.

While the House and Senate, along with President Obama, continue to negotiate a way out of the mess they have created, the rest of us can only wait and hope that some sort of resolution is reached before the debt ceiling crisis hits us on October 17.