BILLINGS - The failure to pass a budget has led to 21 government shutdowns since the 1970s.
“The shutdowns have increased in frequency and duration,” said Dr. Paul Pope, MSU Billings political science professor and chair of the department.
Watch Professor Paul Pope thoughts on shutdown here:
Pope looked at the last shutdown that started in December of 2018 and lasted 34 days.
“I don't know if we can go much more than a month,” Pope said. “A month is really pushing it on its own.”
After Congress failed to reach a budget deal, the federal government shut down on Wednesday.
Pope says 800,000 Americans will go on furlough and tens of thousands will continue to work critical service jobs, including in Montana and Wyoming.
“We depend on money transfers from the federal government and without the federal government, things will just decline here,” Pope said.
He has some thoughts on how citizens are represented when Congress does not pass budget bills well in advance of the deadline.
“It's just brinkmanship,” Pope said. “Neither side wants to compromise. They're elites. They're societal elites, and they're manipulating the bulk of America, which is working class. Almost all of Americans are working class.”
Pope also says the shutdown points to the importance of knowing what is happening with the government.
“They record all the votes. We should pay attention to those things,” Pope said. “We should look at the policies, but it does take time and it does take work and we have to care more about our country than which party we're voting for.”
The professor says failing to compromise on a budget goes against what the framers of the Constitution intended, and the shutdown could cost billions of dollars.
“People should be contacting the legislators and say, you know, hey, you need to fix this,” Pope said.“You broke it, you fix it. I don't care if you say Democrat or Republican. Congress broke this. We need to fix it.”
