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MASON CITY, Iowa – Congress has less than one week to pass that new budget or the government will be forced to shut down.
North Iowa Area Community College students are wondering what the situation will mean for them.
Tristan Paulis said, “It kinda scares me a little because it sounds like, I don’t know, things could fall apart?”
Lee Rethamel said, “It seems like they threaten and threaten and threaten then they always figure it out at the end.”
Those are some of the reactions many people have when they hear about the looming government shut down.
It’s something the united states hasn’t experienced in 18 years.
NIACC Political Science Professor, John Schmaltz said, “Based under the dispute right now, we’re talking about one-third of federal jobs possibly being shut down that are considered non-essential.”
Professor Schmaltz says the tricky part is deciding what is considered essential and non-essential.
“We just don’t know how this is going to play out.”
Professor Schmaltz said, “security, the military, and the army are not going to be shut down or anything like that.”
One thing many local students are questioning is how the programs that help put them through school will be impacted.
NIACC Student, Levi Dahl said, “As a college student, my biggest concern is probably dealing with financial aid and maybe jobs in the future.”
Paulis said, “There’s no way I’m going to be able to pay for college without financial aid.”
Professors Schmaltz says if those programs are impacted, it’ll most likely only be from an administrative standpoint.
And avoiding the potential shutdown comes down to 3 things.
“Compromise, compromise, compromise.”
Schmaltz adds that compromise can be reached in a few different ways, but it all will have to come down to Presidential executive leadership.
“He’s got to be able to give and take with congress, they very likely could come back and give him that funding for Obamacare,but then he’ll have to make some compromises to some social welfare programs that the Republicans want to cut.”
And even if congress comes right up to the eleventh hour, most many aren’t feeling alarmed.
Rethamel said, “If it does shut down, within 2 weeks they’ll have worked together on a solution, because that’s what they always do.”