[ti:US Government Shutdown- Week One]
[ar:Avi Arditti]
[al:In the News]
[by:www.21voa.com]
[00:00.00][04:52.11]更多听力请访问51voa.com
[00:03.40]From VOA Learning English,
[00:06.14]this is In the News.
[00:08.67]This week,
[00:10.37]a political dispute in Washington led to
[00:13.00]a partial shutdown of the United States government
[00:15.95]for the first time in almost 20 years.
[00:19.33]Agencies sent home more than 800,000 workers
[00:23.91]-- about one-third of the federal work force.
[00:27.10]The new budget year began Tuesday, October 1.
[00:32.17]But Republicans in Congress blocked
[00:34.86]even short-term spending for many government operations.
[00:39.15]They demanded that Democrats change the Affordable Care Act,
[00:43.63]the new health care law often called Obamacare.
[00:46.91]The Democrats refused.
[00:48.95]The shutdown did not stop Tuesday's launch of
[00:52.34]online marketplaces, called exchanges,
[00:55.33]at the center of the law.
[00:57.08]The federal government and states started websites
[01:00.96]for millions of uninsured Americans
[01:03.40]to buy health plans or pay a tax penalty.
[01:07.13]Opponents of Obamacare say
[01:10.01]it will force people and small businesses
[01:12.65]to buy insurance policies against their will.
[01:15.94]At the heart of the dispute is a clash
[01:19.23]between the two major political parties
[01:22.12]over the role of the central government in American life.
[01:25.46]The political fighting between Democrats and Republicans
[01:29.89]began to intensify during the 1990s.
[01:33.37]That followed the election of Democrat Bill Clinton as president.
[01:37.57]Differences over spending and the role of government
[01:41.45]led to two government shutdowns.
[01:43.84]The disputed presidential election of 2000
[01:48.02]brought Republican George W. Bush to office.
[01:51.20]University of Virginia expert Larry Sabato says
[01:55.93]the political battles only deepened during his second term.
[01:59.87]"There is no question that the polarization increased first
[02:03.90]with the Bush presidency,
[02:05.10]because of the Iraq war and his handling of Hurricane Katrina.
[02:09.28]Then it accelerated once President Obama was elected."
[02:14.75]The divide grew wider when President Barack Obama
[02:18.23]pushed his health care reform law through Congress in 2010
[02:22.86]without a single Republican vote.
[02:25.54]That in turn helped to fuel the rise of Tea Party groups
[02:30.02]around the country.
[02:31.21]The Tea Party is a conservative voting group
[02:34.75]within the Republican Party.
[02:36.29]Republicans have made several attempts
[02:39.53]to either defund the Affordable Care Act or delay it.
[02:42.97]The law is one of the most important acts of Barack Obama's presidency.
[02:48.04]Peter Brown of Quinnipiac University in Connecticut studies public opinion.
[02:54.16]"Republicans like smaller government and lower government spending
[02:59.14]and therefore are more opposed to Obamacare.
[03:02.04]Democrats tend to be more supportive
[03:04.28]in general of government solutions to problems,
[03:06.02]and they see Obamacare as the right thing to do
[03:09.20]to help on the health care issue."
[03:10.95]Currently, Republicans control the House of Representatives;
[03:14.38]Democrats hold the Senate and the White House.
[03:18.06]A group of conservative Republicans in the House
[03:21.94]have been leading the opposition to the health care law.
[03:25.08]Many of them now depend on strong support
[03:28.46]from Tea Party activists to get elected.
[03:31.21]Larry Sabato says many of them are willing, at least for now,
[03:35.59]to accept the political blame for forcing the government to shut down.
[03:40.71]"They will pay a bigger price,
[03:43.14]but they seem willing to pay it in part
[03:45.98]because most of their members are in completely safe [congressional] districts.
[03:50.12]The only thing they have to worry about
[03:52.16]is a challenge from the right in the Republican primary.
[03:55.40]So they do not want to let anybody get to their right."
[03:58.38]For the moment, Larry Sabato sees no quick end to the shutdown.
[04:02.56]Political observer Charlie Cook says some of the Republican opposition
[04:08.08]is also driven by deep feelings against President Obama.
[04:12.65]"There are a lot of Republicans where if President Obama said ‘up,'
[04:16.24]they would say ‘down.'
[04:17.03]The last politically driven government shutdown
[04:20.27]began in December of 1995.
[04:23.06]It lasted three weeks.
[04:25.14]And right now there is another issue.
[04:28.09]Congress will soon have to raise the borrowing limit
[04:32.14]or risk the United States not being able to make all of its loan payments.
[04:37.37]Congress must renew the government's power
[04:40.30]to borrow money by October 17 or risk a first-ever federal default.
[04:46.58]And that's In the News from VOA Learning English.
[04:50.57]I'm Avi Arditti.
END OF TRACK. "END OF TRACK." The two men bowed. "Whoever was that person you were talking to?" she enquired, as soon as they stood together. The took of triumph faded from her eyes, she had grown worn and weary. The roses were wilting on the walls, the lights were mostly down now. Hetty, looking in to see if anything was wanted, found herself driven away almost fiercely. I only saw Master Jervie once when he called at tea time, The year 1747 was opened by measures of restriction. The House of Lords, offended at the publication of the proceedings of the trial of Lord Lovat, summoned the parties to their bar, committed them to prison, and refused to liberate them till they had pledged themselves not to repeat the offence, and had paid very heavy fees. The consequence of this was that the transactions of the Peers were almost entirely suppressed for nearly thirty years from this time, and we draw our knowledge of them chiefly from notes taken by Horace Walpole and Lord Chancellor Hardwicke. What is still more remarkable, the reports of the House of Commons, being taken by stealth, and on the merest sufferance, are of the most meagre kind, sometimes altogether wanting, and the speeches are given uniformly under fictitious names; for to have attributed to Pitt or Pelham their[112] speeches by name would have brought down on the printers the summary vengeance of the House. Many of the members complained bitterly of this breach of the privileges of Parliament, and of "being put into print by low fellows"; but Pelham had the sense to tolerate them, saying, "Let them alone; they make better speeches for us than we can make for ourselves." Altogether, the House of Commons exhibited the most deplorable aspect that can be conceived. The Ministry had pursued Walpole's system of buying up opponents by place, or pension, or secret service money, till there was no life left in the House. Ministers passed their measures without troubling themselves to say much in their behalf; and the opposition dwindled to Sir John Hinde Cotton, now dismissed from office, and a feeble remnant of Jacobites raised but miserable resistance. In vain the Prince of Wales and the secret instigations of Bolingbroke and Doddington stimulated the spirit of discontent; both Houses had degenerated into most silent and insignificant arenas of very commonplace business. "It certainly will be. Miss Widgeon," answered Maria, with strictly "company manners." "One who has never had a brother exposed to the constant dangers of army life can hardly understand how glad we all feel to have Si snatched from the very jaws of death and brung back to us." "Just plug at 'em as you would at a crow, and then go on your way whistlin'?" persisted Harry. "Hurroo!" echoed Hennessey; "that's the ticket." "Come forward, keeper," continued the baron, "and state how these arrows came into your hands!" "Yes." HoMEJULIA京香2018下载
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