Thursday, December 19

An emergency plan to avoid a government shutdown has breezed through the French Parliament, but the United States isn't experiencing the same success with their bill.

Every year, many governments are required by law to pass an annual budget which determines how much money they will spend over the next fiscal year. After France's previous Prime Minister Michel Barnier was ousted last week, the government quickly scrambled to find a solution, as Barnier's budget plan was also thrown out when he left office. A few days ago, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that the country's next Prime Minister as François Bayrou, a centrist ally of his.

However, this left just days to draft and pass a budget bill before the government's December 21 deadline, after which a shutdown would occur-- in France's history, they have never undergone a government shutdown. Due to this, lawmakers rushed to pass a stopgap bill to prevent a shutdown from taking place, which would temporarily freeze the government, causing chaos. The new bill would allow the 2024 budget to, in a way, overflow into the beginning of 2025 until a new budget is passed by Bayrou's government, and it was unanimously passed by the French Senate yesterday after being approved by the National Assembly earlier this week.

This comes at a time of severe financial need for France, who have been struggling with overspending and a large budget deficit. The country's current budget deficit is over 6% of their gross domestic product, and experts think that could rise to 7% as soon as next year.

On the other hand, the United States did not experience the same success with their attempt at a stopgap bill. Unlike France, the US is relatively familiar with government shutdowns-- in fact, the country has had a shutdown several times, the most recent of which was in 2019. As 2018 carried into 2019 under former (and soon-to-be) President Donald Trump, the government was not able to pass a budget bill in time, sparking a 35-day shutdown that cost the government over $5 billion.

In the United States, during a shutdown, all non-essential services are temporarily halted and hundreds of thousands of government employees are furloughed, or put on a temporary, unpaid leave. Essential services like military officers, law enforcement, air traffic controllers, and others are required to keep working without pay, which causes a host of problems across industries.

Now, the US is at risk of another incident. After lawmakers came up with a last-minute bill to extend funding until March, it was withdrawn by Republicans yesterday after pushback from Trump and billionaire Elon Musk. The bipartisan bill was led by House Speaker Mike Johnson, who included many sections to appeal to Democrats. Johnson confirmed that they would need the support of Democrats to pass the bill, but Republicans began pushing back against his ideas. Trump told Johnson and other Republicans to amend the draft before it was passed, and he also denounced many of the Democratic-leaning elements that Johnson had included. In addition, Musk strongly rejected the bill on social media, driving House Republicans to take back the idea. Musk is set to lead the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, along with Republican Vivek Ramaswamy, who echoed Musk's thoughts on the bill.

House Democrats have angrily called out their GOP counterparts for withdrawing the bipartisan bill, which would have prevented a government shutdown. Now, Congress has just days to draft a new idea and pass the bill before the shutdown deadline at midnight on Saturday, which could heavily impact travel, among other things, across the country as schools close for the winter.

Fact of the Day (Reader's Digest): While most people believe that camels store water in their humps, this is actually incorrect. The humps on their backs are stores of fat when they need to go for long periods of time without food. While camels can go on for over a week without water, that water is stored in their bloodstream, not their humps.

Quote of the Day: Happiness is a mindset for your journey, not the result of your destination.

(Shawn Achor)

Word of the Day (Merriam-Webster): Qualm (noun, pronounced KWAHM)- A qualm is a feeling of doubt or uncertainty about whether one is doing the right thing, or whether something is right or proper. Qualm is often used in its plural form, as in “I have no qualms with that decision.”

In a Sentence: Elena’s parents had no qualms about her organizing a dinner party for her three closest friends.