14. Bill Clinton’s Administration Held Onto The Longest Shutdown In History For Over 20 Years
On December 16, 1995, the United States Government shutdown due to a disagreement about funding for Medicare and Medicaid. The Republicans wanted to cut funding for these programs, along with asking the Democrats and Clinton to agree to another financing. However, the President of the United States, Bill Clinton, and his Democratic political party didn’t want to conform to the Republican’s terms, therefore, going into a government shutdown. For the Clinton administration, this was the second government shutdown as their first one occurred a month prior.
With Congress and President Clinton disagreeing on the budget, the government shutdown broke the record of the most extended federal government shutdown in history after 17 days. Fortunately, by this time, Congress started to make a bit of movement on ending the government shutdown. At this time, President Clinton and his team were working on creating a balanced budget plan for the following seven years. On January 5, 1996, Congress met and went over the new budget plan, which both political parties agreed to. This result ended the Clinton administration’s second government shutdown.