Shut Down

[RMAC757]

If interest rates on government borrowing goes up, the amount of money left for the federal government to operate goes down. When the FedRes stops buying debt, that interest rate will go up. Depending on how much the rate goes up, there may not be enough money to pay any federal employees.

At that point, there won't be any money left to pay for anything but the debt that We the People have accrued.

The funding of the ACA and the debt ceiling are small beans compared to the future we face.

Be safe.

Bingo

[Aloha_Shooter]

Short form for understanding "essential": would someone be working at that position if there was a 4-6 foot snowfall and 35+ mph blowing winds outside? If you'd have to go in under those conditions, you're essential (at least for that day). If you'd stay home under those conditions, you're not. Biggest laugh of my life was seeing how many people considered themselves to be "essential" on the first day of furloughs under the Clinton-Gingrich showdown.

[TheGrey]

I know plenty of government workers that have nothing to do with the decisions that politicians make. They're good people that are just like the rest of the communities that they serve.

Many of them are veterans that retired from the military and went back in as civilians.

Their pay and lives have been disrupted while the politicians play their spoiled, selfish games.

I really hope this isn't a long furlough.

[cstone]

I know plenty of government workers that have nothing to do with the decisions that politicians make. They're good people that are just like the rest of the communities that they serve.

Many of them are veterans that retired from the military and went back in as civilians.

Their pay and lives have been disrupted while the politicians play their spoiled, selfish games.

I really hope this isn't a long furlough.

Well, this isn't the first federal shutdown, and it likely won't be the last. While there is no guarantee that Congress will do what they have done in the past but... In every other shutdown, the essential workers were eventually paid for having gone to work and done their job just as if there never was a shutdown. The non-essential workers were paid as if they had gone to work because Congress decided that it would be wrong to penalize them for being forced to stay at home because the crisis was not of their own making. It has become a strange little irony that approximately 60% of the federal workforce is essential and they are a bit jealous of the 40% of non-essential federal workers who will be paid to stay home.

We have the government we elected. Obviously each of us made our own choices, however, we now live with the choices of the majority of our fellow Americans. If we find ourselves in a shit stew, we need look no further than ourselves. Congress is representing a divided nation and we are being lead by a man with little or no moral compass. These are the times we live in.

Be safe.

[TheGrey]

Well, this isn't the first federal shutdown, and it likely won't be the last. While there is no guarantee that Congress will do what they have done in the past but... In every other shutdown, the essential workers were eventually paid for having gone to work and done their job just as if there never was a shutdown. The non-essential workers were paid as if they had gone to work because Congress decided that it would be wrong to penalize them for being forced to stay at home because the crisis was not of their own making. It has become a strange little irony that approximately 60% of the federal workforce is essential and they are a bit jealous of the 40% of non-essential federal workers who will be paid to stay home.

We have the government we elected. Obviously each of us made our own choices, however, we now live with the choices of the majority of our fellow Americans. If we find ourselves in a shit stew, we need look no further than ourselves. Congress is representing a divided nation and we are being lead by a man with little or no moral compass. These are the times we live in.

Be safe.

I know. I do appreciate what you're saying; I'm just finding it especially worrisome in this economic climate.

I also know that the people that must stay home have work piling up- and they're going to have to frantically try to catch up and unbury their desks when things get going again. In the meantime, their bills do not wait. So not only will they be forced to try and catch up with the work piling up, but their bills as well.

[Danimal]

This is another situation where the people hurt have nothing to do with the problem. You bet your ass if congress, the senate and obutthole were locked in a room without pay and could not leave until the national deficit was $0 and a working budget was signed, they would be out by lunch. They have the power to fix this, they know what is right but they will fight the party line for whoever has them in their pocket. They suffer no real consequence or accountability for anything and with that their only real motivation is to make the other party look bad in an attempt to displace blame and win some votes.

[Aloha_Shooter]

The President and Harry Reid are holding firm because they don't WANT a budget that is smaller. We went through this dance before. Heck, this budget was still enormous and only cut out the part that has the greatest chance of exploding into even higher debt and they wouldn't budge but you're calling the Tea Party faction "radical". That's pure idiocy -- and the Tea Party faction didn't even exist when Bush was president, it arose because of the extraordinary spending pushed by OPR (Obama-Pelosi-Reid) that made even Bush look fiscally responsible.

You want to say the GOP and Bush aren't blameless? Fine, I'm with you on that but calling the Tea Party faction radical when the obstinate radicalism is clearly sitting over at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and at the Senate is blindly ignorant and purely stupid.

[TFOGGER]

I have an idea to encourage the politicians in DC to get off their dead asses and do their jobs: Not only do they not get paid during the "shutdown", but all of their benefits are suspended for the duration (Travel, security, staff, etcetera), and all of their assets are frozen, period. The can lodge in a dormitory at Annapolis, eat in the chow hall, ride a bus to the Capitol, period. If I didn't do my job for 3 f**king years, that's be more than I got. Alternatively, they could be fined for all salaries and benefits they accrued in those 3 years. They need to figure out that they cannot continue to spend 30% more than the government takes in in taxes indefinitely. Sooner rather than later, there needs to be deep spending cuts, along with responsible oversight to ensure that the Government gets good value for the money it spends.

[RblDiver]

I guess Harry Reid hates kids. They passed a bill to support paying the troops during the "shutdown," but he won't do the same to support childrens' cancer clinical trials by the NIH. When asked if he would support it, he said "Why would we want to do that?" http://hotair.com/archives/2013/10/0...s-with-cancer/

[TennVol]

Two thirds of my division was furloughed - including both of my bosses. At least I have a sweet parking spot close to the N-NC building (while I'm not getting paid....)