Let the blame games begin as Democrats and Republicans begin to identify who caused the government shutdown.

Due to a congressional dispute over the Affordable Care Act, parts of the government officially closed for the first time in 17 years on Oct. 1.

The act was passed by Congress, signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2010 and evaluated by the Supreme Court last year.

The sole blame goes out to the Republicans who forced an unnecessary budget crisis in order to fulfill their hopes of a one-year delay on health care reform to inevitably destroy Obamacare.

The demands of the Republican leaders in the House are pretentious and do not relate to budgetary matters.The proposed bills Obama refuses to sign eliminate the funding of the Affordable Care Act in what Republicans see as an effort to stop it by halting a continuing resolution of the budget.

Not all the government will cease, only departments and agencies determined to be nonessential such as National Park Service.

Republicans say they are worried about federal spending and the national debt, but Obamacare has constitutionally been made a law through the appropriate legislative process.

The congressional Republicans don’t seem to care about the US Constitution, like they say they do, and wish to defy the law by threats of tampering with the budget in order to eradicate existing laws.

While right now the fight is over the budget another conflict is looming on the horizon— the debt ceiling.

To avoid the eventual fight on the debt ceiling, it should be increased and if necessary Obama should execute his right to lift the debt ceiling with accordance to the 14th Amendment.

The raising of the debt ceiling would not result in new spending, but allow the government to pay for existing debts. There is no reason for the United States to reach a point where it could worsen its economic condition and greatly affect the stability of Americans.

Despite the efforts of Republicans’ to stop the funding of Obamacare, it has gone into effect.

The shutdown has been going on for over a week now and it seems like it will not end soon.