American Government Shutdown

[Yuki]

What's going to happen?

• 800,000 federal employees have to go home. There’s no money to pay them, and coming to work on a volunteer basis gets into some tricky legal areas. While in the past they have successfully lobbied for back pay, there’s no guarantee of it with a divided congress.
• Air-traffic controllers will remain on duty. ATCs are government employees, but they are members of the 2-million odd employees that are marked as “essential”. They likely will not receive paychecks, however, until the shutdown ends.
• Airport delays. While the FAA’s security screeners are essential employees, many of the people who work to support them logistically are not.
• Visa applications and fees will continue to be processed, and foreign embassies and consulates remain open. So if you’re waiting on a visa application, don’t worry, it’s still in the works - though again, it’ll almost certainly be a slower process. Homeland Security and green card operations are included here, though DHS’ e-verify program - the thing that checks on the immigration status of job applicants - will no longer operate.
• NASA will furlough most of its employees. Essential mission control operations and employees will continue, but the vast majority of NASA employees are going home - and I do mean home, because NASA’s on-site housing for employees is being shut down.
• The military stops receiving paychecks. While the million and a half members of the US Armed Services stay on duty, they won’t get paid until after the shutdown.
• The postal service continues as normal.
• The federal court system stops. According to The Guardian, the federal courts would operate as normal for about 10 days before they have to start sending people home.
• The NIH screeches to a halt. That includes accepting new patients for clinical research, as well as answering medical questions on their hotline.
• The CDC will stop its seasonal flu program. According to the Washington Post, it will also have “a significantly reduced capacity to respond to outbreak investigations.”
• HUD will no longer be able to provide local housing authorities with vouchers. So if you live in government-subsidized housing, your status is very much up in the air.
• Parks and museums will close. Yosemite, Alcatraz, Yellowstone, the Smithsonian, the Library of Congress, the Statue of Liberty, and about 400 other locations will close - though interestingly, the Southern Rim of the Grand Canyon will remain open, because the state of Arizona is picking up the bill.
• The EPA will shut down. The only thing that stays open at the EPA during a government shutdown is its operations around Superfund sites.
• OSHA will shut down.
• Social Security will be partially defunded. Social Security, as an entitlement, will remain open enough to keep the checks going out, but will lose enough staff that they won’t be able to schedule new hearings.
• VA Benefits will be cut. VA hospitals remain open, but that’s about it - and if the shutdown lasts longer than a few weeks, the Department of Veterans Affairs has said that it might not have enough money to pay disability claims and pensions.

This is by no means an exhaustive list, but hopefully it gives everyone a pretty good idea of what we’re going to be looking at over the next few days, weeks, or (god forbid) months.

[Amethyst]

um

what

wait what happened i have not heard any of this

[renowner]

Congress couldn't come to a decision on Obama's health care initiative, republicans trying to undermine it, and democrats not wanting that, yatta yatta. Since they didn't come to a decision in time, the government is facing shutdown. Apparently for the first time in 17 years. So in short, congress is pretty deadlocked and can't come to even a bit of a trivial decision, so millions of federal workers are going to be pretty much in limbo, and the military can't leave, but won't get paid either. God bless America. Political squabbling for the win. Getting pretty close to elections too, so things aren't gonna look good for whichever side ends up being the scapegoat for all this.

[Skullkin]

Congress couldn't come to a decision on Obama's health care initiative, republicans trying to undermine it, and democrats not wanting that, yatta yatta. Since they didn't come to a decision in time, the government is facing shutdown. Apparently for the first time in 17 years. So in short, congress is pretty deadlocked and can't come to even a bit of a trivial decision, so millions of federal workers are going to be pretty much in limbo, and the military can't leave, but won't get paid either. God bless America. Political squabbling for the win. Getting pretty close to elections too, so things aren't gonna look good for whichever side ends up being the scapegoat for all this.

The liberal media is pointing fingers as we speak. :/ I'm not a republican, I'm just an independent who tends to swing conservative more often than not.

[EternalJinn]

This is messed up. Some of my friends have federal employee parents who are the main bread winners of the house and now they're not sure what they're going to do. Personally I think the Congress needs to get off its high horse and quit this ridiculous crap

[renowner]

I certainly agree with that. Its definitely not fair to expect people to have to work without pay for up to months at a time.

All the layoffs ect. The many people at N.A.S.A losing their living areas, having to go home SOMEHOW.

Edited October 1, 2013 by renowner

[Unluckyfury]

As long as it doesn't effect the Pokemon reborn episode 10 release i really don't care

[Code: PIRULUK]

*cough*

Problems with a two-party government

*cough*

[Dana]

Well shit.

[Noivy]

Welp, a pity this wont actually change anything in the long run. People should use this chance and riot the hell out of their lives right now because hey, some authorities are not getting paid!

[Ringabel]

i really should move to Canada.

Edited October 1, 2013 by rotomfan63

[diana]

If you actually read rather than just ask questions you would have seen that it was already explained above?

[Neo]

*cough*

Problems with a two-party government

*cough*

*Cough*Problems with an ignorant electorate*Cough*

In all honesty, the problem doesn't lie with the current system, because there are more than two parties. The problem lies with people voting based on what they see on the 'news'. When people are being bombarded with biased 'information' from both sides, people vote based on what the sharp-dressed man on tv is saying.

Not only that, but the Republican party has become a joke. The Tea Party is literally devoted to disagreeing with whatever is coming from the left.

I'mma tl; dr myself before this turns into a ramble.

tl;dr People need to research, media on both sides contributes to the issue, and no one in congress should have a secure seat in the next election

[Magus]

Oh congress your arguments has caused another shut down. They truely don't get anything done.

[Brockze]

Just to add to the awkwardness, you have 16 days before you have to stop borrowing money...and then I think we'll be seeing a very different story.

And a request for negotiations has been denied.

Woo.

[Amethyst]

...Oh. I had heard about that threat, regarding the healthcare, but I didn't think that this would... actually happen. Huh.

In regards to the voting/two party thing I remember seeing on the tumblrs how Australia manages its votes, wherein rather than just voting This or That, you vote based on priority so as that if your first choice doesn't end up in the running, your vote goes to your second choice, and so on. In this way, the fear of 'throwing away' a vote on an independent or unpopular candidate is erased, opening the system up to greater change. I would very much like to see an adaptation of that here.

Of course that's only one of many problems.

[Requieon]

...Oh. I had heard about that threat, regarding the healthcare, but I didn't think that this would... actually happen. Huh.

In regards to the voting/two party thing I remember seeing on the tumblrs how Australia manages its votes, wherein rather than just voting This or That, you vote based on priority so as that if your first choice doesn't end up in the running, your vote goes to your second choice, and so on. In this way, the fear of 'throwing away' a vote on an independent or unpopular candidate is erased, opening the system up to greater change. I would very much like to see an adaptation of that here.

Of course that's only one of many problems.

...If it weren't for the Godzilla sized spiders, I think I may have wanted to move there..

.

Gotta be better than the "brilliance" I'm seeing the land of the dumb%$@#s produce atm.

[Maelstrom]

Believe me when I say that us military types are getting paid. there's along list of things they'll cut military wise before they cut pay, like training exercises, military skill schools, etc. worst comes to worse, we will always have a standing military ready to fight, if not out doing drills and sshit, using up gas and ammo and meals and civillian workers, etc.

[Color]

in b4 the "Purge" scenario.

What's the next ticket to England plox?

[renowner]

I really hope that by the end of all this they can at least agree on SOMETHING and not end up causing another shutdown.

(P.S. love your quote Color)

[Yuki]

Being a social libertarian I can't take anything that goes through congress seriously without acknowledging that what I want to happen is probably not going to. I haven't been following the political scene nearly as closely as I was last year (I've pretty much just accepted that having valid and informed decisions does nothing to change anything, the American Dream is a crock of shit whipped up to keep the people gullible enough to believe it moving forward, etc) but when I was on top of my shit, I liked going to theweek.com for all of my news stuff. They're really unbiased (except for in opinion articles, but those are obviously trying to sell you on one side or the other's view) and I never see their non-opinion articles criticize or praise anything so much as give you the facts and let you make decisions based off of those.

Also, factcheck.org

use it

for everything

[EternalJinn]

My dad is just the best, describing to me how if this last long enough my friends won't be able to pay their bills or their mortgage and will end up on the streets. Thank you captain obvious, just that I prefer not to sulk even further into a pit of depression.

[Mukkod]

TL;DR Obama and Harry Reed are acting like fucking children because their precious Healthcare Act is trying to be screwed with so that it doesn't screw we who live in the US of A

[Mukkod]

Welp, a pity this wont actually change anything in the long run. People should use this chance and riot the hell out of their lives right now because hey, some authorities are not getting paid!

Love to see that happen and when the cops show up in their cars they just get out and fuckin join in...Itd be so awesome!

[Brockze]

TL;DR Obama and Harry Reed are acting like fucking children because their precious Healthcare Act is trying to be screwed with so that it doesn't screw we who live in the US of A

From the point of view of an interested bystander, what makes you think the ACA will screw America over?