On Tuesday Oct. 1, the United States federal government was shutdown due to not coming to an agreement on a budget for the 2014 fiscal year.

The main issue that Congress is arguing over is Obamacare, which would make health insurance affordable to more people and reduce the cost of it for the government and people.

The Senate, which is controlled by the Democratic Party, is in favor of passing the Obamacare bill however the House of Representatives, Republican controlled, refuses to fund the bill thus causing the disagreement on passing the budged thus causing the first government shut down since 1996.

While we may not feel the impact of the shutdown here at the University, that doesn’t mean it hasn’t already or will affect other people more severely.

Estimated numbers have around 800,000 federal workers on an unpaid leave of absence. Since the government is no longer working, the workers can’t do their jobs and get paid.

The total amount of lost wages could go up to $1 billion a week. The government loses millions of dollars a day as it is shutdown, and if the government doesn’t reopen soon, the U.S. could lose billions of dollars.

The major impact the shutdown has is the closure of museums across the country. The Statue of Liberty and the Lincoln Memorial, to name a few, have been closed to the public.

Many Americans might have already visited these historical landmarks, other people haven’t including tourists.

Tourists from different countries travel to America to see the landmarks that have so much history behind them. Since they are now closed, tourists can’t visit these museums and landmarks’, thus causing more money the U.S. loses.

The question though is, whose fault really is this?

Is it President Obama’s fault? Technically it’s his bill that he along with the Democratic Party came up with.

However, he doesn’t have a vote on the budget. The vote on the passing of the budget is between the Senate and the House of Representatives.

Right now Obama can do nothing else but sit back and watch the senators and representatives argue back and forth with each other.

If it isn’t Obama’s fault, is it the people in Congress? Technically, they are only doing what they believe is the best interest for their party and the country.

They were elected into their position to represent their state by the citizens of their state.

Therefore, does the blame go onto the American people?

We were technically the one’s who voted on who would represent our state for the Senate and House of Representatives. However, could anyone have seen the government actually shutting down when they casted their votes? I don’t think so.

But, that doesn’t mean in future elections we can’t pay more closely attention on who we vote for.

For me, this shutdown is going to make me pay more attention to the candidates running to represent my state in Congress.

The American people need to heavily consider their candidates because they will be the ones working for the federal government and voting on budgets and bills to be passed.

The way it is looking right now, an agreement between the Senate and House of Representatives isn’t close and this could drag on for a week, if not more.

Either way, this looks awful on our country right now, and this will only increase the debt this country faces right now.