The Government reopened in mid-October when Congress passed a bill to fund the government by raising the debt ceiling. The government originally shut down due to Republicans and Democrats’ inability to agree on the funding of the government. The agreement to raise the debt ceiling to above $17 trillion temporarily funded the government.

This may have ended the government shutdown for now, but it all it did was delay a another possible government shutdown until Jan. 15. Congress has until that date to create a new budget plan to fund the government starting on Feb. 7 of this fiscal year. If they are unable to agree on a budget, then the government will go into another shutdown.

I think that raising the debt ceiling was the right thing to do for now because it allows the government to pay its existing bills. This is good because the government would have defaulted because they would not have been able to borrow any money. However, while I agree that we needed to raise the debt ceiling, we cannot keep doing this because it increases the amount of money we borrow. Rather than raising the debt ceiling again, we should cut our spending so we can work to get rid of our debt.

I think the government needs to work together to cut spending on things that are unnecessary because it is hurting our national debt. Our national debt is constantly increasing and we cannot keep spending, giving charity  to other countries, such as Eygpt who we give $1.5 billion to every year. While I think charity to countries that are in need of it is a good thing, there is no point in spending money we don’t have.

Also, the government can eliminate Saturday delivery of mail because most businesses that rely on mail only operate Monday-Friday.  In addition, this is the age of electronics where most things are done through email, text, or fax.

Another way we can cut spending is to eliminate excess benefits we give senators, congressional people, and presidents after they leave the office. This is because taxpayers should not have to keep paying these people unreasonable benefits when they are only in the office for a few short years. This would work because instead of spending our money on that, we can use that money to lessen our debt. This is essential because according to the U.S. National Debt Clock, the average debt per person in the United States is already approximately $54,000.

I believe that if we keep this up, it will not only hurt us, but it will end up hurting the whole world in a domino effect. According to BBC News, if we go into default, it will most likely make the interest rates rise all across the world and make the markets plunge around the world. Since we are one of the more dominant countries in the world with many countries relying on our financial aid, if we end up defaulting because we are unable to pay people back, other countries will collapse as well. Congress needs to work together in order to avoid these consequences and keep America economically strong.