Dear bloggers: Don't underestimate US budget crisis
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Another casual optimist, Mr. Shi Zhongwen, director of the Institute of Citizenship and Modern Culture at North China University of Technology, also negates any short or long term impact from a potential US government shutdown. In his blog, he writes, "Is there any substantial impact to the US after its government shuts down? No, there is none."
Both Shi and Ai argue that the US is generally well-governed, despite its political squabbles. However, they overlook the severity of the US budget situation which led to the recent Congressional budget fight.
Both Republicans and Democrats are short of effective measures to counter the enormous US budget deficit, which will reach its legal limit of $14.294 trillion by mid-May. On April 18, credit rating agency Standard & Poors downgraded the long-term outlook for US government debt from "stable" to "negative". Even though the US government will ultimately remain open, it will face enormous challenges to reverse its deficit, which will certainly lead to difficult cuts for a wide variety of government programs which benefit the lives of citizens. It also may ultimately lead to higher taxes, causing average Americans to tighten their belts even more.
The announcement of federal and state spending cuts has already aroused public anger. Washington D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray was arrested with 41 other protesters on April 11 for blocking a street near a US senate office building. As part of the bipartisan budget compromise, D.C. will lose federal funding for abortions, which protestors believed is a violation of women's rights. In Wisconsin, Governor Scott Walker's proposal to force state employees to contribute more to their health care and pension costs caused over 25,000 angry workers to converge on the state capitol. The ferocity of those protests has even drawn comparisons to the recent Egyptian and Libyan uprisings.
Yes, the US government remains open, but its economic problems remain more deep-seated than some of the Chinese literati have been led to believe. Chinese bloggers should take into account the magnitude of the challenges Americans now face before they blindly state that the US can afford to continue the status quo.
The author is a writer and commentator in Beijing.
Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.
(This article was written in Chinese and translated by Li Shen.)
