WASHINGTON, October 17 (by Karin Zeitvogel for RIA Novosti) – The United States woke up Thursday to lick its wounded international image after the 16-day government shutdown was declared over – at least until the next looming deadline to fund the government early next year.
A banner headline on The Boston Globe screamed “CRISIS OVER*” but specified in an asterisked footnote that the Band-Aid that US lawmakers had put on the US economy and system of governance would only last for three months until the next budget deadline.
Boston Globe wins the shutdown headline battle. (Except I don't think there really was a battle.) pic.twitter.com/jAJ1fmA3zr
— Ryan Weber (@ryanjweber) October 17, 2013
Gary Younge, a correspondent for Britain’s The Guardian newspaper, said the last-minute deal to raise the debt ceiling and end the shutdown solved nothing.
“US politics is stuck in chronic dysfunction,” he tweeted, and in the paper wrote, that while Americans were blaming “cranky conservative Tea Party” Republicans for the shutdown, the crisis was really “rooted in an electoral system that is heavily gerrymandered, where only those who can pay, can play.”
.@garyyounge: "And so America's skewed democracy lurches on toward its next crisis" http://t.co/HEl0iqIXjv
— GuardianUS (@GuardianUS) October 17, 2013
The United States did not avert a default with the last-minute deal reached by the Senate on Wednesday and passed within hours by both Houses, but diverted one, someone tweeted.
Crisis diverted http://t.co/RvBKiesOqr
— QIAN (@nyc10002) October 17, 2013
John Chambers, managing director of credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s, which in August 2011 downgraded the United States from its top-notch AAA rating to AA+, citing Congressional bickering, predicted on CNN that “we’ll be back here in January, debating the same issues and, given the composition of Congress, it will be still acrimonious.”
“This is, I fear, a permanent feature of our budgetary process,” he said.
Standard &Poor’s said the shutdown had cost the United States $24 billion.
Was it worth it? Standard and Poor's estimated the Govt. shutdown took $24 billion bite out of the economy.
— Tim Myers (@timmyers6) October 17, 2013
With shutdown havoc wreaked on the reputation of America’s political system, the Republican Party’s popularity, which sank to an all-time low of 28 percent in one Gallup poll, and Tea Party-backed Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, whom many pointed to as the instigator of the shutdown, some looked even further into the future, saying the Republicans’ missteps made an as-yet-to-be-selected Democrat a shoe-in for the White House.
Thanks, Ted. @HillaryClinton #shutdown http://t.co/2EpPDJVHz9
— Justin Jude (@justinjude) October 17, 2013
Federal workers returned to work in Washington Thursday, jamming Metro trains and highways during morning rush hour.
Fought the post-shutdown traffic to drive DH to the train station for an extra 30 together. Also, did ppl forget how to drive in 2 weeks?
— Thien-Kim Lam (@thienkim) October 17, 2013
The government agency that was the hardest hit by the shutdown, NASA, where around 95 percent of the workforce was furloughed, posted a message on its Twitter feed for the first time in two weeks on Thursday.
But life at the space agency will take some time to get back into full swing because “experiments have been left unattended for more than two weeks… Equipment needs to be powered back on,” wrote the space website Universe Today.
NASA Celebrates Return To Work, But Shutdown’s Shadow Could Linger Read more: http://t.co/nSa6Qi4bKk pic.twitter.com/UDPGpaHU4Y
— Universe Today (@universetoday) October 17, 2013
Many federal workers – the men, at least – grew beards during the shutdown, and ceremoniously shaved them off when it ended at midnight. But some of them acknowledged that they’ll probably be sprouting new whiskers in a few months.
One last look at the #shutdown beard before it can finally be retired...for a couple of months anyways! pic.twitter.com/3VPgrOHf0a
— Michael Griesinger (@allwxrunner) October 17, 2013
Americans resumed planning for weddings and camping trips in national parks, which had been closed during the shutdown.
Government shutdown is over. Go camping.
— keelan coburn (@idontcarewhy) October 17, 2013
And Americans looked on the bright side when they realized that they had missed more than two weeks in the life of the National Zoo’s newborn panda because of the shutdown, which darkened the zoo’s Panda Cam on Oct. 1.
It's cute now! RT@LacyMB OMG LOOK HOW BIG THE PANDA CUB GOT DURING THE #SHUTDOWN: http://t.co/QXjdOsbetB #icant #helpme
— Brittany Campbell (@BLGerig) October 17, 2013
