Checks and Balances

Remember your High School Government class when you studied the U.S. Constitution and learned we have a system that divides power between the three branches of government?  Remember when you learned about the Checks and Balances each branch has with the others?  That is what is happening now with the Federal Government closed for business.  The guy pictured here is James Madison, the person who devised and wrote most of the Constitution and who authored many of the Federalist Papers explaining how the Federal government would work (or not work) under the Constitution.  James Madison is smiling now, because our Federal Government is working just as he envisioned it would.  Congress, starting with the House, would appropriate funds to the Executive to spend.  The House has approved an appropriations bill, but it doesn't fund the Affordable Care Act popularly known as Obamacare.  The Senate refuses to vote on this bill or any appropriations bill unless funds are included for Obamacare.  The President calls those dirty, rotten House members names for refusing to fund his health care law, forgetting they, like him, were popularly elected by a majority of the voters in their districts.  What will happen?  There will be a compromise.  Our constitutional form of government requires all parties to work together - to share their powers - to compromise - to see that the work of the federal government gets done.  God Bless You, James Madison!