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US: Shutting down
    1. Countdown to US default looms
      A halt of US government operations would drag the world’s biggest economy closer to bankruptcy, something unprecedented in US history. If no budget deal is done, the US would bump up against their “debt ceiling” and run out of money by October 17. By then, the US government would have less than $30 billion cash on hand, Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew has calculated.

    2. Hundreds of thousands of federal employees on furlough
      A one-time layoff of 800,000 people working for the US government would erode the earlier projected economic growth of 2.5 percent for the fourth quarter of 2013 by about 0.32 percentage points, according to a forecast by Mark Zandi, chief economist and co-founder of Moody's Analytics. That projection assumes a two-week shutdown. If it drags into a whole month, the loss of GDP would rise to 1.4 percentage points.

    3. Troops’ paychecks stopped
      About 1.4 million military active-duty personnel would keep on working, but with their paychecks delayed. Approval for troops’ paychecks is dependent on Obama’s proposed 2014 federal budget being passed by Congress.

    4. Women and children’s nutrition program threatened
      Pregnant women and new moms who are poor and facing “nutrition risk” won’t be able to buy healthy food, as a looming shutdown would put bracers on the $6 billion Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women Infants and Children (WIC).

    5. $85 billion in cuts to federal programs
      When a shutdown was last threatened in March 2013, it would have resulted in $85 billion in automatic cuts in spending on federal programs – many aimed at alleviating social hardship. The cuts, known as sequestration, would affect grants to local organizations and funds that keep those programs running.

    6. Housing loans halted
      US federal programs that provide for about 30 percent of all new loans in the housing market – a backbone of the country’s economy – will be shut down. Government funding of new businesses will also be halted, as well as workplace health and safety inspections.

    7. Trade talks scuppered?
      US plans to have a Pacific trade deal, the Trans Pacific Partnership, signed with the US’s Asian partners could stall, as Obama may decide not to travel to this weekend’s Bali, Indonesia meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation nations. While he could still go if no deal is done by then, it could be a gift for his Republican opponents if Obama was seen to be jetting off to a tropical paradise at a time when federal employees were sent home without pay.

    8. Visa delays likely
      Thousands of Americans may not be able to get passports for foreign travel, and tourists travelling to the US will likely face delays in visa processing. During the last government shutdown in 1996-97, some 20,000-30,000 applications remained unprocessed daily.

    9. Space program on hold
      Space agency NASA will be hit the most, as the agency will need to furlough about 97 percent of its employees, though it will continue to keep workers at Mission Control in Houston and elsewhere to support the International Space Station, where the two NASA astronauts currently on board, Michael Hopkins and Karen Nyberg, may not know whether they have jobs to come back to.

    10. National parks, museums and zoos would close to the public
      State-funded museums, art galleries and zoos across the country would keep their doors closed Tuesday, leaving thousands of employees furloughed and visitors unable to see attractions. US national parks, from Yosemite to the Shenandoahs, as well as Washington’s National Mall, Lincoln Memorial and Constitution Gardens, would also be closed.

    http://rt.com/usa/us-government-shutdown-effects-550/

  • 16 Replies sorted by
  • http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2013/09/23/225462813/8-things-to-know-about-a-government-shutdown

    I remember the shut down in 96....not much happened. The average person won't notice it, only those TEMPORARILY laid off and those on vacation who can't get into the national parks and those vendors who have business directly tied to that vacation income.

  • I remember the shut down in 96....not much happened. The average person won't notice it,

    Few things are different this time. :-)

  • Essential services and mail will continue as normal, just like every Weekend in the US, where people seem to be able to get along just fine anyhow.

    If I was in congress, I'd propose to suspend collecting Federal taxes while government is shut down!

    The effect would be an immediate direct stimulus to the consumer, then with a bigger paycheck. It would be good for all tax paying americans, hence why it wouldn't pass...

  • If I was in congress, I'd propose to suspend collecting Federal taxes while government is shut down!

    If I was in congress, I'll propose to suspend payment for few years. And add other huge budget cuts. To try to live according to taxes actual income.

  • I remember 96 shutdown, I was in Netherlands and I needed a Visa and the Embassy was closed.

  • The govt takes in over $200B in taxes every month. they are hardly broke. They should try spending a bit less. I know it's not that simple, but geez, come on already.

  • @johnnymossville - Exactly! - For crying out loud. It's like any other business. You overspend, you go broke, you go out of business. I hope this is a wake up call but it you look at the number of times we've shut down in the last 40 years, it's really no big deal. Sad.

  • World domination is so expensive. If only the USA could go back to ignoring the rest of the world instead of trying to control it.

  • If only the USA could go back to ignoring the rest of the world instead of trying to control it.

    I am sorry to inform you, but USA can not ignore rest of the world :-) You can browse back blog post to check many funny charts on it.

  • Well perhaps ignore was to strong a word at least roll back some of the military machine that eats so much of the budget. That being said not much hope for US any ways when the ones causing the shutdown still are receiving paychecks. If ever there was a non essential service : )

  • this is great news ! Send as many of the criminal politicians packing as we can ! Less to feed while they're in prison !

  • While it's true few will feel the effect, there are some that won't feel the effect at all: both congressional houses have exempted their pay from the shutdown.

  • @DancingCamera If that's true, it needs to change. Although it will probably never happen, our politicians need to be accountable for these things. And Americans have to be accountable for putting them in office. In other words, there's a lot of accountability to go around. Until we all become more accountable, we are going to continue to see this kind of behavior. The US has always had the potential to be a great country, the envy of the world. Sometimes we live up to that potential, but quite often we then squander away that good will because of greed, bad judgement, and sheer recklessness.

    If Vitaliy statistic about $30 Billion cash on hand is correct, that's an atrocity in a way. Apple has $45 billion cash on hand in the US. Another $100 Billion is on hand overseas. I know the two are not directly correlated but it is sad if the US economy is in that state of financial distress. If a business was run this way they wouldn't be around long, or they would have a serious restructuring take place.

    Unfortunately, over the past few years I have really lost faith in the system, not just because it's seriously eroded but because the reality of the world has really sunk in - there are a lot of people who are just not good human beings. Obviously there are degrees of "bad", but the level of corruption in all aspects of our daily lives seems pretty high. It has become difficult to trust anyone, and I was always one for trying to find the good in people but it has become far more difficult. It's really sad. The economic paradigm has in my opinion potentially led us on an eventual path of destruction. There seems to be no greater conflict of interest than the global economy and our individual well being.

  • Unfortunately, over the past few years I have really lost faith in the system, not just because it's seriously eroded but because the reality of the world has really sunk in - there are a lot of people who are just not good human beings. Obviously there are degrees of "bad", but the level of corruption in all aspects of our daily lives seems pretty high. It has become difficult to trust anyone, and I was always one for trying to find the good in people but it has become far more difficult. It's really sad. The economic paradigm has in my opinion potentially led us on an eventual path of destruction. There seems to be no greater conflict of interest than the global economy and our individual well being.

    In fact it is obvious (just small initial) change happening due starting resources and energy shortages. Monkeys can be really very good behaving until they have plenty of food and space. Put them in huge shortages and extreme violence will happen with 100% probability sooner or later.

  • The writing is on the wall this time. Fundamental changes are happening now.

  • Well Kennedy Space Center was a ghost town today. What a freaking mess.