Shutdown (The West Wing)
Encyclopedia
Plot
A disastrous fiscal crisis looms when the federal government is shut down after the President and the powerful Republican Speaker of the HouseSpeaker of the United States House of Representatives
The Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, or Speaker of the House, is the presiding officer of the United States House of Representatives...
(Steven Culp
Steven Culp
Steven Bradford Culp is an American film and television actor, best known for his roles as Rex Van de Kamp in the television series Desperate Housewives and CIA Agent Clayton Webb in JAG.-Early life:...
) disagree over an extra two percent in budget reductions
Budget crisis
A budget crisis is an informal name for a situation in which the legislative and the executive in a presidential system deadlock and are unable to pass a budget. In presidential systems, the legislature has the power to pass a budget, but the executive often has a veto in which there are...
that would trim many of Bartlet's key social programs. Opinion polls reveal that the public blames the Democrats for the impasse. As Leo, Josh and Toby send the staff home, the trio remains uneasy as the President refuses to compromise – until he hatches a bold plan to personally and publicly challenge the Republicans in the halls of the Capitol. By marching to the Capitol, the President humbles himself and thus re-gains public support by symbolically proving that he is the one who is willing to make the effort to overcome the impasse. Speaker Haffley's counter-measure – snubbing the President by refusing to meet with him right away – backfires when the President eventually leaves, indicating to the public that after the President had taken the first step to resolving the shutdown crisis, it was Congress who had chosen politics over negotiation.
Meanwhile, Abbey suddenly reappears from her self-imposed exile for a State dinner that she might have to cook herself.