After desperate, last-minute legislative wrangling, the federal government shut its doors at midnight on January 19, yet another casualty of congressional dysfunction. National Parks may close their doors, federal workers and contractors will go unpaid and the economy of one of the most prosperous and productive regions of the country will be harmed considerably. Each day that the government remains closed will cost the taxpayer millions, and the economic effect of the whole sordid affair will run into the billions of lost revenue.

While the government shut down in this case, it was equally plausible none of this would come to pass. On January 22, Congress passed a continuing resolution kicking the proverbial can of the federal budget along for another few weeks, before this farce starts up once more. At some point in February, the budget debacle will rear its ugly head once more, and this whole artificial crisis will play out once more. Nowhere in sight, of course, is a true budget – a concept that seems to have entirely disappeared from the minds of today’s politicians.

The willingness of our elected legislators to throw the country into chaos is (or rather, should be) astonishing. A prolonged government shutdown could throw the millions of employees whose employment depends on the government to the brink of financial ruin, or lead to a decline in the welfare of the least fortunate, and most government aid dependent, members of our society. At a time that the  American economy is probing the outer limits of the growth phase of an economic cycle, the shutdown of the government could tip the American, and thus, much of the world, economy into recession. The stock market is famously fickle – and the bullish attitudes of today could quickly change should Congress prove unable to keep the government open.

Today’s GOP deserves much of the credit, or blame, for this sorry state of affairs. It controls both houses of Congress and the presidency, yet seems to have a deep-seated aversion to governance. It has proved unable to pass any legislation but a fiscally irresponsible tax cut for corporations and the wealthy few. It now seems primed to fail that most basic test of legislative competence – the ability to keep the government open.

Neither are the Democrats completely innocent. Their growing insistence that any deal to keep the government open must be tied to a resolution of DACA is harmful to the interests of the country at large. Millions will be harmed by a shutdown, and it is the duty of Senate Democrats to endeavor to stop such an occurrence.

It is past time for Congress to stop dawdling on the budget. Britain, Canada, France and countless other advanced democracies are capable of passing a yearly budget. The United States stands alone in its failure to be able to consistently keep the wheels of government turning. This abdication of legislative responsibility is deeply shameful, embarrassing and potentially devastating. And the inability of the legislature to perform basic functions no doubt figures prominently in the mind of those many Americans who either refuse to vote, or voted for the likes of the current president. Congress must pass a budget – the American economy, and, perhaps, the future of American democracy, depend upon it.