As the partial shutdown of the federal government stretched into its fourth day on Friday, the loss of services offers a rare point of debate about the role of government in people’s lives.
Louis Fortis, editor-in-chief at the Shepherd Express in Milwaukee and a former state legislator, said the shutdown was highlighting a need for those services.
“I think that as people realize all the different things government does for them and how … they get affected when you shut down the government, I think it makes an argument for government,” he said.
But Steve Prestegard, a fellow journalist and blogger, said it was worth looking at what was still running smoothly, and where those same services already existed.
For example, Prestegard said, TV weather services could do the same work as the National Weather Service in warning residents about severe weather events.
“It would be nice to actually figure out what is essential and what is being done in the private sector that is being done better than government does,” Prestegard said.
But Fortis, a former economics professor, said he was dubious about private options always being better. He said education, for example, should remain in the hands of the government.
“When you profit-maximize, you start making decisions that are not in the best interests of the greater good,” Fortis said. “With education and a number of other services, we need to keep an eye on … the bigger picture.”
