In a commentary, “Republicans Have Done Real Damage to the Economy,” Dave Johnson goes over the past, present, and future damages of the government shutdown.  The repercussions of the shutdown are being brought into the spotlight, and Johnson is pointing the blame at the Republicans.  

            The targeted audience of the commentary would be those who oppose the Republican Party. This is because Johnson’s argument specifically attacks the Republicans. The argument being made is that because of the selfish powers of the Republican Party, consumer confidence levels take a plunge, which further damage our beaten up economy.

            Johnson immediately attacks the Republicans by claiming: “Republicans believe that a bad economy works for them at election time.” He gives evidence of the past and present damages caused by the government shutdown. His first point is that in 2011 when the Republicans threatened to send the country into default, the consumer confidence took a plunge. He claims, “In Debt-Ceiling Déjà Vu Could Sink Economy” Bloomberg reported that, “Growth in nonfarm payrolls decelerated to an average 88,000 a month during the three months of the debt-ceiling impasse, compared with an average of 176,000 in the first five months of 2011.” Consumer confidence plunged to a 31-year low.” Johnson then goes on to discuss the damages done by this year’s government shutdown. He begins by stating this year the damages are far worse than the damages done in 2011. For example, “Standard & Poor’s ratings agency has done some early calculations of the damage and says, “the shutdown has shaved at least 0.6% off of annualized fourth-quarter 2013 GDP growth, or taken $24 billion out of the economy.” He goes on even further and blames the Republicans for “the 2013 job-loss from the sequester cuts to be estimated at only 800,000 jobs, but the 2014 job-loss is estimated to be 1.6 million.” These are just a handful of studies that Johnson uses to put the damage of the economy on the Republicans’ back.

            Johnson uses great sources such as: “The New York Times,” The Government Accountability Office, The Bipartisan Center, and many more that provide good evidence and studies. These sources help his credibility, however, the only thing hindering Johnson’s argument is his very biased view. First off, the commentary is a “left-leaning liberal blog.” Secondly, the way he points the blame at the Republicans is in a very disliking tone. For example, “Republicans have been obstructing…everything,” “That’s just those two pieces of Republican damage to our economy,” and “Republicans still have one power: the power to destroy. And they will use that power until we take it away from them.” This is the only reason why Johnson’s credibility gets knocked.

            Overall, his commentary proposes an overall successful argument. He provides good use of studies that show solid evidence of the damage done to the economy. Although, he is using an extremely biased view, the evidence shows that due to the Republicans threatening and actually shutting down the government, they caused our GDP to fall up to 4% and cause the economy to take a tremendous plunge.

            An editorial found in The New York Times, “The Cost of the Shutdown,” argues that many Republicans are claiming the government shutdown as “an opportunity to show that less spending isn’t really so bad.” However, that claim is false and the shutdown will actually cause more spending and damage the economy.

            The editorial’s targeted audience is not to just those who oppose the government shutdown, but a vast majority of every American. The argument is being made to explain how the government shutdown will not only harm us, but our economy as well. And if we are being informed that we are in harms way, it keeps the audience engaged with the editorial.

            Many Republican officials are claiming that the government shutdown is doing no harm, and that during the shutdown there will be “less spending.” The author, however, is arguing that the shutdown is indeed causing harm and hurting our economy. The statement is backed up by facts about the past government shutdown between 1995 and 1996, and also with facts about the current situation. In the past government shutdown between 1995 and 1996, it “cost the Treasury $1.4 billion over 26 days…equivalent of $2.1 billion in today’s dollars.” These are head turning numbers to have just occurred within a 26-day span. According to “the research firm IHS Inc. [ it ] estimates that the shutdown will cost the country $300 million a day in lost economic output.” Not only will we have to spend billions of dollars because of the shutdown, millions of workers are not getting paid.  We also have “ the cost to the economy from the lost productivity of the 800,000 furloughed workers and the delayed paychecks to the more than one million “essential” employees who are still on the job.” The author could have cemented his argument by stating military veterans might not receive their benefits as well. I believe that military families are more politically up-to-date and are more inclined to read this article, which would bring more support to his argument.

            The argument is successful because it makes people realize what the government shutdown is actually doing to our economy. If our economy is in a downward spiral, potentially our nation is in a downward spiral. We are already in a major economic deficit, so we should not be adding to this deficit due to the “single-minded crusade” of some Republicans. Many people are blind to what the government shutdown affects are, however, by reading this editorial many eyes will be open to the negative affects of this dire situation.