WASHINGTON (7News) — A fall Friday on the National Mall is hard to beat.
“It was a nice little breeze. The temperature is nice,” Kenny Remo said.
“It’s a beautiful day out,” Becca Struble said. “Fall is in the air, so coming out here with my friend. Just enjoying the monuments.”
Though suddenly, it all feels very different in the midst of the first government shutdown in six years.
Remo said he goes to the National Mall about three times a week after work, and noticed fewer people on Friday.
“A lot less people, it is a lot less. It looks more like a ghost town,” Remo responded.
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Cayce Myers, professor and Director of Graduate Studies at Virginia Tech School of Communication, explained the shutdown into historical context.
“These are two different shutdowns,” Myers explained. “The 2018-2019 [shutdown] was more complicated because they had a new Congress that was coming in. The issue back then was an issue over border security, the border wall, and a budget that would include funding for the wall.”
Myers said the debate this time around is largely about affordable healthcare. He said it’s also tough to predict just how long this fight will last.
“It’s a question that I don’t know anyone, including those who are in leadership in Congress, have an answer to,” Myers said.
There are plenty of factors, he said, that can likely speed up the process and force lawmakers to reach an agreement.
“A lot of times these things are determined by how much appetite the politicians but also how much appetite the public has to see this drag on,” Myers added.
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What all shutdowns have in common is widespread worry, as hundreds of thousands lock in for what could be a rocky road ahead.
“The personal impacts of the government shutdown on federal workers and their families is something that I think both parties are cognizant of,” Myers added.
