Historical Context: Every Previous Gov’t Shutdown in One Article

2013-10-01 Govt Shutdown

The Washington Post has a rundown of all the past government shutdowns, starting in September of 1976. For each shutdown, the WaPo gives you dates, duration, the President, and which parties controlled each of the House and Senate, along with a basic overview of what caused the shutdown and what resolved it. There have been 17, if you’re curious. My quick breakdown of responsibility is based on looking at who controlled the House and Senate during each shutdown. If both were controlled by one party, I blamed them, otherwise I blamed both.

Democrats: 8, Republicans: 2, Both: 7

I wouldn’t take that too seriously or anything, I’m just pathologically incapable of not doing at least a teensy bit of analysis whenever I see numbers.

4 thoughts on “Historical Context: Every Previous Gov’t Shutdown in One Article”

  1. It’s important to note that, thanks to pre-1979 rules, six of the one-party Democratic shutdowns weren’t actually shutdowns, but rather “simply funding gaps that didn’t have any real-world effect.”

Comments are closed.