President Barack Obama has made multiple statements in the past few weeks concerning the upcoming possibility that if the United States does not raise the debt limit and defaults on its loans that it will be a black eye for how the world views the United States. Will the current government shutdown sully the United States' reputation abroad as well?
In Europe the government shutdown has been met with confusion and incomprehension. After years of being held up as a thing to emulate the American political system is now being mocked across the Atlantic, according to the Christian Science Monitor.
Le Monde, France's most notable newspaper, ran a headline harkening back to the founding fathers on Tuesday: "Jefferson, Wake Up. They Have Become Fools!"
Jacob Kirkegaard, a senior researcher at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, compared the political situation in the United States to the now crumbling political structure of Italy, according to the Christian Science Monitor.
"Regrettably, on the eve of a possible U.S. government shutdown, the political scene in the nation's capital increasingly looks like the fractured and malfunctioning politics of Italy, especially when it comes to right wing extremism," Kirkegaard said. "Both Rome and Washington are succumbing to a revival of the medieval political strategy of hostage taking."
In China the state run Xinhua news service described the shutdown as the "ugly side of partisan politics." The commentary went on to attack the United States for overspending and having a large amount of foreign debt, much of which is owed to the Chinese government, according to Reuters.
"The United States, the world's sole superpower, has engaged in irresponsible spending for years," the commentary said. "In the view of the latest political failure, a replay of the 2011 summer drama seems likely, which is, certainly a concern for U.S. foreign creditors."
Justice Malala, a political commentator form South Africa, told the Washington Post that the government shutdown has made the United States the butt of many jokes after years of lecturing South Africa about their spending.
"They tell us, 'You guys are not being fiscally responsible,'" Malala said. "And now we see that they are running their country a little like a banana republic. So there is a lot of sniggering going on."
Jose Antonio Ocampo, a former finance minister for Colombia, told the Washington Post that he could not fathom the stance that the Republican Party has taken leading to the shutdown.
"It's incredible, it's surrealism," Ocampo said. "I don't remember, as minister of finance of Colombia, a blackmail so absurd like the one that the U.S. government has to face."
In 1975 the Australian government got into a similar sort of deadlock over the budget and was unable to continue to fund the government leading to a shutdown not all that different than what the United States is currently experiencing. While it is not known how the current American predicament will be solved one thing is for certain, it will not be solved in the same manner as the Australian shutdown, the Washington Post reports.
"Queen Elizabeth II's official representative in Australia, Governor General Sir John Kerr, simply dismissed the prime minister," Max Fisher wrote in the Washington Post. "He appointed a replacement, who immediately passed the spending bill to fund the government. Three hours later, Kerr dismissed the rest of Parliament. Then Australia held elections to restart from scratch."
