In about 12 hours, at midnight tonight, the federal government is expected to shut down. What does this mean to most American citizens? How will this affect and impact you?
The answer really depends both on how long the shutdown lasts, and what services you usually access from Uncle Sam.
The mail will still get delivered and, try as hard as they might, Congressional Republicans, even by shutting down the government, still can’t shut down the Post Office.
Social Security and Medicare payments are expected to continue, but may slow down as time goes on. And new enrollees will have to wait until the government shutdown ends.
If you’re worried, however, the House and the Senate will still get their regular paychecks — even though they’ll be doing nothing. It’s a federal law.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) “would be severely limited in spotting or investigating disease outbreaks, from flu to that mysterious MERS virus from the Middle East,” NBC reports.
Federal home and business loans are expected to be delayed, as are passport services, and, ironically, perhaps, permits for guns.
The shutdown will be expensive. It takes money to “open” and “close” the government. Also, all those federal workers — close to a million — who will be furloughed may actually end up getting paid, like Congress, for not working.
The shutdown will have an immeasurable toll on the emotional wellbeing of many Americans, as it did when the government last shut down, thanks to newt Gingrich, who was Speaker of the House at the time. (Curiously, Gingrich, who works for for CNN, hasn’t been on the cable news channel much talking about the shutdown.)
And sadly, as is the case with the sequester, the people most affected buy the shutdown are those whose voice is rarely heard — the people who rely most on government services.
Our friends in the military will likely get paid, although if the GOP’s food stamps bill were to become law, thousands of military families would be going hungry, which is a national disgrace.
But there’s more. The economy will increasingly get worse. Today the markets are dropping a lot, and that will likely continue. Even with a temporary “CR,” continuing resolution, if one were to pass, the uncertainty will drive markets down — which means people will spend less, hurting our economy and jobs even more.
Ironically, the GOP has made this about Obamacare. Their first response to Obamacare was it would be bad for business because it would create uncertainty, and that would kill jobs.
So, what exactly are they doing?
For more, watch the CNN video below, read USA Today’s “66 questions and answers about the government shutdown,” see CNN’s “Government shutdown: Get up to speed in 20 questions,” and visit NBC’s extensive listing.
http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/.element/apps/cvp/3.0/swf/cnn_embed_2x_container.swf?site=cnn&profile=desktop&context=embedwww&videoId=us/2013/09/25/tsr-foreman-what-if-government-shuts-down.cnn&contentId=us/2013/09/25/tsr-foreman-what-if-government-shuts-down.cnn