Washington Would Feel Shutdown More than America

[Larrymc]

A shut down doesn't sound so scary with the right perspective.

http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/politics/2013/September/Washington-Would-Feel-Shutdown-More-than-America/

[Kathianne]

Correct, most government, like politics is local:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/30/us/politics/government-shutdown-would-hurt-economy-of-washington-area.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0


September 29, 2013
<nyt_headline version="1.0" type=" ">For the Washington Area, a Second Lightning Strike</nyt_headline> <nyt_byline> By ANNIE LOWREY (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/l/annie_lowrey/index.html) </nyt_byline> <nyt_correction_top> </nyt_correction_top> WASHINGTON — A temporary shutdown of much of the federal government, disruptive though it might be, would probably have only a modest effect on the government’s cost of doing business and would do minimal damage to the economy over all. But not so for the capital region.


For a decade, Washington has been the town that the recession forgot, a bastion of economic confidence, low unemployment, growing wealth and healthy property values. But as the rest of the country has started to recover, Washington and its close-by suburbs in Maryland and Virginia have stalled, hit hard by the $1 trillion in budget cuts known as sequestration, as well as by hundreds of billions of dollars in additional cuts to the military.


If the government has a lapse in spending, or if Congress cannot approve an increase in the government’s borrowing limit in mid-October, the pain would only get worse, economists said.


“There’s been a dramatic slowdown in growth” in recent years, said Stephen Fuller, the director of the Center for Regional Analysis (http://cra.gmu.edu/) at George Mason University. “A potential shutdown, the debt ceiling — those headwinds would come in combination with sequestration, furloughs, job reductions and contract cutbacks.”


“The economy is just limping along,” he said.


Federal workers, in Washington and elsewhere, would feel the brunt of a shutdown if a spending measure were not approved by Congress on Monday, having already faced furloughs this year because of sequestration.
Greg Nudd, an Environmental Protection Agency employee who works on dust and haze issues, was furloughed for a total of 47 hours this year.


“When it became clear sequestration wasn’t going to be resolved, we stopped putting money in the kids’ college fund and put it in an emergency fund,” Mr. Nudd said, adding that he had started looking for a job outside the government. “We’ve cut back on a number of things. We canceled cable, we got rid of our land line, we cut out luxuries, the housekeeper’s not coming — things like that.”

...

[Gaffer]

The govt shut down today and I didn't feel a thing.

[Tyr-Ziu Saxnot]

The govt shut down today and I didn't feel a thing. I feel a spoonful of relieved, two pinches of optimistic and half a cup of delight.. :laugh: Less government always being a good thang! :laugh2:--Tyr

[aboutime]

There really is...One GOOD thing about this shutdown most of us haven't thought about.

As long as this Temporary Shut-down is in effect. 535 Members of Congress, and One Executive in the White House....CANNOT SPEND MONEY WE DO NOT HAVE!


October 1st is the FIRST DAY of the new Fiscal Year. In government. That means everything starts ANEW. So...there is no NEW spending taking place.

Much like the way most cities deal with UNION MEMBER STRIKES.

The Strikers (GOVT. SHUT-DOWN) make demands until the city (CONGRESS) gives in, and they find the NEW SPENDING to APPEASE the Strikers, and the STRIKE ENDS....
(GOVT. NO LONGER SHUT DOWN)

That's how the game is played in Politics.

[Larrymc]

The govt shut down today and I didn't feel a thing.
https://scontent-a-dfw.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/s403x403/1380011_566307070090129_1258408119_n.jpg
(https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=566307070090129&set=a.330374477016724.83603.311190048935167&type=1&ref=nf)