In response to your recent editorial, I am so tired of hearing about how the “government shutdown,” which is a complete misnomer, falls solely on the shoulders of “some House Republicans.” This is simply untrue, and is an appeal to emotion about an issue that is more complex.

so tired of hearing about how the “government shutdown,” which is a complete misnomer, falls solely on the shoulders of “some House Republicans.” This is simply untrue, and is an appeal to emotion about an issue that is more complex.

First, these representatives are doing the job they were elected to do. Over a third of Americans, and up to 75 percent of the people in these congressmen’s’ districts are opposed to Affordable Care Act. They are expected to fight against legislation that their constituents oppose. That is their job.

Secondly, even once a bill is passed and signed into law, Congress has the responsibility of approving funding for each and every department and program that the government is responsible for. If the budget cannot support a program, regardless of its passage, Congress has every right – and it is their obligation – not to fund it.

Finally, the very term “shutdown” is a misnomer designed to incite the public. Government has remained over 80 percent funded this entire time. All essential services were funded, just as they always have been. The effects of suspending government services were purposefully made to seem worse than they really were (barricading non-staffed memorials, for example). Republicans submitted multiple proposals that would put furloughed employees back to work, but they were rebuked time and again by the Democrats, presumably to extend the hardship of the public and enable more finger pointing.

The United States is already trillions of dollars in debt and accrued an additional deficit of nearly $350 billion in the first quarter of this year alone. The Affordable Care Act has its heart in the right place, but it is a costly, ill-conceived program that the public does not want and the country cannot afford. The people fighting it in Congress are doing the right thing. If only they would fight every new, unnecessary government program with such fervor.

Grant Beaver, Kirkland