Quad Talk
John Hickerson, a junior advertising major
“It hasn’t changed the way I view the government, I think it has just made it more public.”
Fred Robinson, a junior telecommunications major
“I know there are some people who do some good things and the people who have good intentions who are truly trying to represent their constituents. But this whole thing with the shutdown is just ridiculous and honestly I lost more respect for the government than before.”
Devyn Shively, a senior painting major
“It has probably made it a little worse but I didn’t think all that highly of it before.”
Myriam Lozano, a freshman undecided major
“Honestly it hasn’t really affected me too much. I am not really big on politics, following politics and all that.”
The 16-day federal government shutdown was an example of the United States government’s inability to work for the public good, said some Ball State students.
“I think it is absurd, after all this time they can’t come together,” said Quinten Pattison, a freshman construction management major. “That’s their job, to run the government.”
Freshman nursing major Shantelle Whitsey likened the partisan bickering to a fit a child might throw if they didn’t get their way.
“The next time a teenage girl goes off, they can’t say anything,” she said. “They are just throwing the same type of temper tantrum.”
Daniel Reagan, a political science professor, said this party line budget battle has happened at least two times in recent memory.
“Most Americans know that Washington has been pretty divided, this is just the latest episode,” he said. “It is kind of a dramatic example of the extent to which there is this deadlock.”
In 2000, when George H. W. Bush was president, the government came close to a shutdown due to the debt ceiling. The longest government shutdown lasted 21 days in the 90s under former president Bill Clinton.
Becca Howard, a Ball State employee and recent alumna, said she thinks most Americans don’t worry about politics.
“The government is just a mess anyway,” she said. “I didn’t see an immediate effect, so I don’t think about [the shutdown] everyday.”
Freshman physical therapy major Elise Ingram also said she doesn’t think the government shutdown or debt ceiling crisis affected her life.
“Everything is corrupt anyway,” she said. “I feel like they are not being supportive [of] the citizen’s needs.”
Reagan said he thinks the view among most politicians is that their seat in government is safe. He said politicians, especially state representatives, have the idea that their party is more than likely to win.
According to a survey by opensecrets.org, 90 percent of seats in the House of Representatives were won by those who previously occupied them in 2012. For Congress, 91 percent of the seats were returning members.
Pattison said he thinks it is time for this to change.
“I absolutely will not vote for [the people currently in office],” he said. “I didn’t want these people back in the first place.”
Not all students saw the shutdown as a bad thing.
“It was for a good cause, it forces them to get something done,” said Gabe Valli, a freshman marketing major. “The debt ceiling shouldn’t be raised anyway, we need to do something about spending.”
Reagan said the new piece of legislation will look to create a framework for action, so the government will not have the chance to run up against deadlines as it has in the past. Although, he said, things like this have been attempted and failed in the past, the most recent of which was sequestration.
He said these across the board spending cuts, that took effect Jan. 1, were supposed to be “so unpalatable that that horrible thing would force them to come to a compromise.”
“We see that didn’t work,” Reagan said. “The details [of the new plan] would be different but the logic may be the same.”
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