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That family trip to the Grand Canyon could be in jeopardy if Congress and the White House fail to reach a budget agreement.
April 7th, 2011
07:48 PM ET
10 things that could ruin your day if the government shuts down
The list of collateral effects of a potential government shutdown keeps growing and people are none too pleased about it. Here are just a few of the negative impacts that could arise if Congress and the White House fail to reach an agreement on the budget (click here to view in chart form):
- The lawmakers who hold the cards will still get paid. Their staffers might be furloughed, though. That has prompted a few lawmakers to announce they'll refuse shutdown pay,but even that has elicited critiques of political posturing.
- Roughly 800,000 federal workers won't get paid because they're considered nonessential and therefore, the first to be furloughed. That includes people who work in national parks because they'll be closed, ruining countless long family road trips. And it's not just the loss of income that hurts - for many, it's being labeled dispensable when they know their jobs are anything but nonessential.
- What happened to all that talk of helping small businesses? Many government contractors are just that. We're talking about IT firms and software companies, to name a few, who may be sent home as well.
- If the government shuts down for an extended period of time, the Department of Defense says troops, including those serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, may not be paid on time. Troops are guaranteed back-pay but the pinch will be more immediate for military families at home, who may be forced to choose between food and rent if they don't know when to expect a check in the mail.
- In the District, trash pickup will be suspended in the event of a government shutdown. In response, some enterprising Facebookers have proposed a solution: "If Boehner shuts down the government I am taking my trash to his house." In addition to trash pickup, the nation's capitol stands to miss out on another cherished tradition: this weekend's Cherry Blossom Festival.
- As the shutdown looms, some political leaders are taking the opportunity to fundraise and rally their supporters. The executive director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee sent out an appeal asking for a minimum $5 donation saying the organization wants to raise $100,000 in the next 36 hours.
- Numerous services administered by the federal government will come to a halt. That means no new approvals of loans by the Federal Housing Administration or the Small Business Administration; no IRS processing of paper tax returns or refunds; no issuing of regular passports or visas (emergency visas and passports will be processed). In fact, anything that requires permits probably will not be processed.
- You'll still get your Social Security checks but don't expect anyone to be around to answer your questions about benefits. The people who take questions on Social Security and Medicare questions will not be at work and most government websites will shut down or have limited functionality.
- Various agencies with the Department of Health and Human Services will operate in a patchwork fashion. The National Institutes of Health will not accept new patients or start new clinical trials. The Food and Drug Administration won't operate at full capacity but will have some inspectors on staff. As a result, all FDA inspections of food processing facilities and drug manufacturing plants will be prioritized by risk.
- Word is getting around that a government shutdown doesn't actually save taxpayers money. For one, it will cost the government money to ensure a smooth transition to a shutdown. Then there's the lost revenue from a variety of sources, from government services to gift shops in government-run attractions such as Yosemite National Park and DC's National Gallery of Art.
I like how everyone is complaining about the poloticians being greedy and then blame the shutdown on the GOP for wanting to cut the rediculous budget. $1.4 trillion dollars is rediculous. Why can't they cut $61 bil out of that? Seriously Harry Reed won't let them cut funding for Cowboy Poetry in Nevada. We seriously pay taxes for Cowboy Poetry.
All this over planed parenthood.. It's time the tea party gets tea bagged..!
...The "Real" problem is...this Baby KiIIing" President ..will let the Military Starve..Crash America ..Anything ..so he can Maintain Abortions in Wash DC ..and Anywhere possible...his record Shows..his Obsession with Mur der of Babies..this Demon.. is Straight out of HeII...
The worst part of this shutdown will be that my mom works with the government. Without work to keep her occupied, she won't have anything left to do but call me relentlessly and come over to my apartment. Please, government, think of what you're doing to my social life.
But speaking of mothers, this is just another big, flashing neon sign that our political system needs an appointed mother to sit in and tell our elected children to grow up and get their chores done instead of bickering like little kids to look cool in front of their friends.
Who does congress think they are? WE pay their salaries and most of them already have money to begin with and the people who really need their paychecks in this sucky economy are the ones who have to go without???? SHAME ON YOU CONGRESS! maybe we should take a pagr from the middle east and protest OUR ELECTED OFFICIALS and get them out- they act worse than a bunch of children arguing over a toy!!!!!
Don't you love our modern American gov? It's going to be a fun Saturday! Viva la Anarchy!
Goverment shut down!? Does it mean we don't have to pay any kind of taxes, because there is no gov. to take it? That would be good for Am. people. However, they will be there to take your money no matter shut down or not.
I think it's about time we all got back to the days of community farming, schooling,and taking care of our own. If we were all self-sufficient, we wouldn't need 70%+ of the stupid a** wasteful government programs. Get me a horse, a cow, some chickens and a few acres of land. Maybe if we all worked on our own self-sufficency, we all wouldn't be so fat.
WHAT A BUNCH OF CLOWNS!!! IF ANYONE SHOULD BE CAUSING AN UPRISING IT SHOULD BE AMERICANS!, BECAUSE NO ONE GETS MORE SCREWED BY THEIR GOVERNMENT THAN THEM!!!!
Youre a bigger idiot. My mail may keep coming. The terrorists may not come out. But I will still have my Big Pharma 140K job and despite operational law enforcement will still enjoy smoking a bone every now and again. You should try it and chill out. Pick on comments your own size.
listen up, America, it is always the "little people" of america whp suffer at the hands of the government. People who have families to support and people who are fighting for this country. Even people who live alone and senior citizens are affected. a government shutdown will affect the whole country. but people who make over $100,000 a year will be ok! poorer will be poorer and rich will be richer! not fair. this whole country is going to hell in a handbasket. Time for another rally
I agree...but a rally of what sort? The Tea Party wants a shut down. No offense to the Tea Party, but their ideologies are some what delusional. We need a rally to restore sanity! Both sides need to compromise. I am not a democrat, but I don't see the right compromising as much. I agree with some of what the right is doing...but they seem to push it to far. I'm ok with the cuts, but don't then give tax breaks to the rich. That just doesn't make sense.
Silly Tonya..so everyone who makes over $100,000 a year will automatically be ok..I suppose there is this magic survival button that kicks in once you clear $99,999.99? What about people that make $80,000? or maybe $60,000 will be ok too. I would strongly suggest you reevaluate your life and realize that the "hate the rich" has never worked throughout history and that repeating history simply makes you a fool. It is true that money creates more money, but few realize in life that those who make $100,000 plus in life either earned their way to that position or someone was foolish enough to elect/give them money to put them in that position. Therefore, you must either credit them for their hard work or chastise yourself/hate their rich foolish relative.
Well said demmycrat!
Tonya is a stonkmonger.....
Lets not forget if the democrats would of passed the budget when they were still in power we wouldn't be in this mess.
I hate the rich and I'm proud of it. I see no reason to support greedy self centered decisions in the upper echalons of industry, nor do I see any need to support trust fund babies. If you don't pay your fair share of taxes the people will come to take it from you anyways... good luck keeping safe when the whole nation falls into decay.
I read these posts everyday – Sillydemocrate you are spot one – for once someone actually makes sense.
Is $100,000 rich if business debt and business loans far exceed that. It is all relative, bills have to be paid either big or small everyone is in the same boat, except of course Ross Perot or Bill Gates.
Didn't the Mayans predict this in 2012? It's only 2011, those fools. Lol
My family and I will be fine. We are frugal people that save and don't spend their money frivolously on things we don't need. A penny saved is a penny earned.
sillydemocrat has just posted one of the stupidest things in the history of the internet. Bravo idiot.
thats the problem.... people wanting something for free.. Govt is too big and the shutdown is necessary if the budget isnt changed. You cant continue on this budget unless you want the end of our country. You cant keep spending what the nation doesnt have. Nothing is free. Get a education so you can make 100k plus as well. WORK HARD and you can have it too
Bman, do you really not think the rich pay their "fair share" of taxes? You could be delusional...
The Teaparty anarchists want to shut down the country and start over with their elitist and racist ideology. The Repubs opened the door wide for them to walk right on in to our government. Get your eyes off of Fox News boobs for a second and watch some REAL news. The truth is out there.
Bman is such a cry baby. You don't like making money? Envious loser, come try and take my 100k.
BMan – The top 10% wage earners ($75,000 and up) pay nearly 90% of the taxes collected by the government. So, who is actually paying 'their fair share'. You can hate all you want, but the bottom line is the minority is truly supporting majority.
and the greed overfloweth. . .
Well the shutdown will mostly effect government staff or government based office. They picked what will be open and what would be closed based off importance. People that make over $100,000 could be small business owners that needs a new permit can't get one because of a shutdown. The people I feel sorry for are the soilders they are out their fighting a war that should have ended years ago. U.S couldn't afford it, but some how it happened and into more debt we went. So in all we should just not re-elect anyone in office that isn't making much sense which is about 85% right about now. They are so worried about wanting to get re-elected they forgot we put them in that office and we can take them out.
Actually my initial hard work allowed me to earn $500,000 per year. Now I have $7,500,000 in investments. Yes, I am very rich. Funny though is after I started really putting away the money, I started to get a lot of perks. My brother in law and JPMorgan has given me great stock tips, my kids have gotten into magnet schools without having the highest scores because frankly I have contributed to select causes, the list goes on people – I can buy influence. And the funniest thing in the world is my secretary actually pays a higher percentage of taxes on a $60K job per year than I do on making more than $1.2MM per year on average. You think the rich have it good – we have it good and we always will. Sound fair?
A 100,000 a year ? You say that like it's a lot of money. 100,000 a year is like poverty level ...please
@sillydemocrat:
I'll be fine. between my wife and me we're over 100K, but honestly, we could easily get by on less. Certainly we feel exactly no pain when we file our taxes. We're continually amazed at how little we have to pay.
Who says "the rich" don't pay their fair share of taxes? I made $215,000.00 last year and paid $95,000.00 in taxes. That's over 40% of the money I made and worked hard for that went to taxes. How much did you pay? Did I NOT pay my fair share? I think I am taxed WAY too high. I earned that money and worked hard for it. Why should I give it away to the government to pay for things I don't believe in, like food stamps, abortion, Guantanamo, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, now Libya... I pay more than my "fair share." If you don't think so, why don't we all just make $10.00/hr. and live paycheck to paycheck? Where would America be right now if that were the case? HUH????
Rally? That requires money. Lol. Americans are about money to get something done.
my little rally will be not spending any money at any business that has any form or republican affiliation. Will it be 100% accurate? No but it will be my small reply to the tea party and their republican mentors. And just maybe those people will respond at the next election. If I am to bear a cost burden from this fiasco it is only proper that that burden be distributed across as many of the supporters of the tea party and their republican mentors as i possibly can - and while my vote is insignificant in the overall picture my dollars can be made to impact.
Time for some full scale riots. I was in those toward the end of the Viet Nam war, and it got the job Done. Total mayhem is the only thing the folks at the top listen to.
"I would strongly suggest you reevaluate your life and realize that the "hate the rich" has never worked throughout history and that repeating history simply makes you a fool."
Hm. French Revolution ringing any bells?
You're all greedy and pathetic
You tell them Swandarox, we made 365k last year and paid 120+ in taxes. Just got audited by the IRS (via mail) even though we did our taxes right, the government is just looking for more and more from hardworking people who didn't party thru college and actually made something of their lives and now we have to pay to clean up the mess of the majority...
@swand...
if you made 215K and paid 95K in taxes, then either you made a mistake in your tax calculations, or a large fraction of it was self-employment tax.
Remember, self-employment tax was Reagan's idea. He wanted to increase revenue and close loopholes that allowed small businesses to unfairly outcompete large businesses.
Sillydemocrat must be a congressman's daughter
For every logical-thinking conservative like Sillydemocrat the are 3 Tea Party supporters who think the only people who work for the government are the elected officials and don't understand how much the government actually does.
aww, poor km. After taxes you only have $600 to spend each and every day.
My wife and I, at half of your income can't figure out what to do with the money we have left over. Gave 21K to charity last year... We'll be putting 50K into retirement funds this year... and still our bank account grows...
gosh, you have it rough.
I dont think it's very fair to blame people making 100k+. While that is well to do that is certainly not rich. The problem comes with the children of the rich. I am not trying to be stereotypical but many will take an easy ride through life. They will go to a private school and then a private college that their father had given money to and they will recieve "gentlemen's" C's all the way through. That wont matter though as their father will have connections and get them an internship with a leading law firm and in a couple years he will be a junior partner. I am not saying this is the same story for all wealthy Americans but it is for many. Check out the short story "Life in the Iron Mills" by Rebecca Harding Davis, it echos very similar themes
This country has had major problems since 9/11! The government needs to get it's s... together and work for the people for a change!!! I am sick of the rich getting richer while the poor keep getting poorer!!! The U.S.A. is in big trouble and it needs to stop now!!! I'm beyond fed up with this crap! Do your jobs!!! Work for the people who elected you! You are going to get us to the point where we will eventually attack our own government! Get ready.....unless things change, it's coming!!!
@jcm52
Self employment tax has absolutely nothing to do with Reagan. It was introduced by the Self-Employment Contributions Act of 1954, well before Reagan was President.
i make a lot less than $100,000 and i work for the U.S. Court system. You are right, it's the little people who suffer. I have two college loans, a mortgage and the same bills as everyone else. What is Congress accomplishing by their posturing? My husband is retired military, and we both believe the soldiers' and their families have enough stress on them without worrying about eating and paying the rent or car payment. Every member of Congress is a disgrace and should be FIRED from their positions...OH, they are the lucky ones...did you know they get a full pension after serving (even one term)...and yet they are sitting around being sanctimonious about cutting the budget! Shame on them.
No , tonya is not "hate the rich" person. Rather love the downtrodden. Do not disect her/his words and numbers. Instead the cry behind it. The soldiers make so less but have so far kept us from facing another 9/11. If it is not for them we would have had couple of 9/11s. Our economy would have tanked and we would have been much worse.
@ Dan the Man, why don't you "loan" me $30K to payoff my student loans? Just write it off.... Thanks
I guess the DEA is an essential agency. Not the FDA. So don't make sure the food is radiation-free, but make damn sure no one is smoking Pot!!!!!
Soon enough the government will figure out that they need to legalize marijuana to support/fund the healthcare bill that they have put in place. I am not saying it is right or wrong; but look at how alcahol is now taxed it wasn't that way years ago. I think that they are slowly doing it by some states saying it's ok for medicinal purposes.
Irradiated food is actually safe (in small doses). Look at strawberries that have been irradiated to kill the bacteria on the surface. They stay fresh for over a week. Strawberries that haven't been irradiated will rot within a week.
The FDA's more important tasks are monitoring pharmaceutical companies for misbranding/adulterated drugs and food products for the presence of harmful bacteria (e. coli, salmonella, etc.) and unclean facilities.
i TOTALLY AGREE SHUT DOWN THE D.E.A PERIOD A BIGGER BUNCH OF WORTHLESS AZZHOLES NEVER EXISTED WEVE BEEN PAYING THOSE JERKS FOR NOTHING MORE THEN LIP SERVICE HUGE WASTE OF TAX MONEY
WELL SAID , my man ... or woman
In the war on drugs, drugs won. Give it up DEA. You are so 1985. Also, why do politicians get to make decisions snout government workers? They are the furthest thing from them. Fat cats!!!!
I agree! Please shut down the DEA. Legalize it and move on to more important things.
People are stupid enough! Now your going to make it legal for everyone to get stoned??!!
@Joe. There's a big difference between being irradiated and containing a radioactive emitter, which is what FDA would be testing for.
Gee, Toyna. Good luck trying to live on $100,000 in Washington or Baltimore.
It would be feasible if public schools weren't so terrible that the only real hope for your kids involves either sending them to $20,000 per year private schools or buying a house which has been way overvalued simply to access decent school districts.
Ever try... moving somewhere cheaper with better schools?
I live in Baltimore with my SO and we definitely make less than 100,000 a year. We also have steady jobs and are not on any form of welfare, and live in a safe neighborhood. Get your head out of your butt.
um,
median household income in DC (that's household, not individual) is under 60K. So yeah, if you're making 100K in DC, you're at 66% above median HOUSEHOLD income. You're not doing too bad. Especially if you're in a 2 income family.
http://www.city-data.com/city/Washington-District-of-Columbia.html
As a student in Baltimore I manage fine at 23,000. This try to survive nonsense its based off all the crap people claim to "need".
@wzrd1 obviously you missed my post saying military personnel are nobel and getting screwed. I've worked with hundreds of former military and every one a stand up guy. But seriously, can we win a war on terror ? I doubt you had time while serving to keep up on the events of the congressional branch. I hope you enjoy your retirement and catch up on what's going on. I'm sure you'll be a little upset too! Thank you for your service to our irresponsible government and country.
And the American people are going to let this happen... amazing how great nations reach their peak and people forget how they got there.......
Revolution?
Yea we are all at fault we continually talk about who we really elected into office and do nothing to hold each and everyone of them accountable for the BS they put us through.
Remember, the supporters of the American Revolution were called terrorists by the red coats.
Well, maybe it is better to shut down voluntarily, than start bouncing checks (like Greece and Portugal) and have the global capital markets shut you down anyway. The credit card is over the limit, it is time to stop.