Government Shutdown 2013

The government shutdown of 2013 lasted from October 1 through October 16, 2013.

Motivations and Fault
Republican Greg Walden of Oregon noted they had to shut down the government "because of the Tea Party" and fear of facing even more conservative opponents in their primary elections.

Indiana Republican Marlin Stutzman, talking about the shutdown, said, "We're not going to be disrespected. We have to get something out of this. And I don't know what that even is."

Dennis Ross (R-FL) noted his party's approach was "a lot about pride."

Republicans planned the shutdown months in advance, complete with documentation proving it.  The Heritage Foundation and Republicans who helped plan the shutdown even held a fundraiser during the shutdown.

Peter King (R-NY) admitted on national media that “we are the ones who did shut the government down.”  Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) noted that shutting down the government "probably wasn't the best strategy to employ" in order to achieve Republicans' goals.

Rachel Maddow of NBC compiled a set of video clips showing that Republicans wanted to shut down the government.

Senator John McCain (R-AZ) said, “We started this on a fool’s errand, convincing so many millions of Americans and our supporters that we could defund Obamacare."

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) were caught on a hot mic discussing their messaging strategy for the shutdown, saying the message that they won't negotiate wouldn't poll well and that they should repeatedly insist they're willing to compromise when they weren't.

Sarah Palin said in a speech during the Million Veterans March that she would “not be timid in calling out any who would use our military, our vets, as pawns in a political game.”  However, she, Ted Cruz (R-TX), and Mike Lee (R-UT) did just that. The veterans were protesting the closure of war memorials, but a local organizer brought these Republicans and Tea Party supporters (who called for President Obama to “put down the Quran” and “come out with his hands up”) against the veterans' wishes. The march's organizers said, "The political agenda put forth by a local organizer in Washington DC was not in alignment with our message. We feel disheartened that some would seek to hijack the narrative for political gain."

Ted Cruz (R-TX), largely seen as the major public figure behind the shutdown, raised a huge amount of money as a result of the shutdown - as did other conservative organizations. Tom Rooney (R-FL) noted that those who "won" during the shutdown were “the people that managed to raise a lot of money off this.  Marco Rubio's (R-FL) hypocrisy and lies became evident when, after the shutdown, he began saying he was never in favor of the shutdown despite being one of the leaders of the shutdown.

The bill that finally resolved the standoff was opposed only by Republicans (almost 2/3 of them voted to keep the shutdown going).

Effects
The EPA sent home 94% of its workers, causing work to halt at cleaning up toxic Superfund sites, including one in the middle of Brooklyn, New York.

Response to a salmonella outbreak was slowed, and flu tracking halted, due to the shutdown.

Enigma.io put together an interactive feature showing costs of the shutdown, including the number of furloughed employees by department and more.

Republicans' approach to budget issues and the shutdown have cost the American economy 900,000 jobs and pushed the unemployment rate up by 0.6%.  Economic effects from the shutdown are expected to continue through the holiday season.

Disabled veterans were to lose disability checks. Blake Farenthold (R-TX) responded by saying "sometimes you have to make a small sacrifice." sometimes you have to make a small sacrificeRand Paul (R-KY) said 85% of the government was still running, but that figure only applied to spending and included mandatory spending not affected by the shutdown such as military pay and Social Security. The figure also came from an early period of the shutdown.

Government workers off the job during the shutdown were not paid, but members of Congress were paid. Republican Lee Terry of Nebraska defended that, saying he needed the money to pay for his "nice house." Kevin Cramer (R-ND) also defended it, saying he was "working to earn" that paycheck.  Steve Pearce (R-NM) said government workers not being paid shouldn't matter because they can just go get a loan from a bank.

Compromise
Republicans continuously insisted they were willing to compromise but Democrats weren't.  However, Doug Lamborn (R-CO) admitted "there has been some compromise and I acknowledge that"; Democrats agreed to continue funding the government at sequestration levels.  Other Republicans also noted that compromise and called it a good victory for their party.

Further Resources

 * CNN's shutdown file
 * Huffington Post's shutdown page
 * Wikiepdia's shutdown article