U.S. Government Shuts Down
Posted by feww on October 1, 2013
Government in partial shutdown amid budget standoff between the House, Senate and White House
The House and Senate were unable to agree on a government-funding bill before a midnight Monday deadline, forcing the federal government to shut down for the first time in 17 years.
The shutdown means that 800,000 federal workers are to be furloughed (unpaid leave) and more than a million others would be asked to work without pay. There would be NO guarantee of back pay once the deadlock is over.
U.S. NATIONAL DEBT CLOCK (usdebtclock.org)
The Outstanding Public Debt as of 01 Oct 2013 at 05:40:00UTC
$ 1 6 , 9 5 9 , 4 3 1 , 8 7 4 , 5 4 1
- Estimated population of the United States: 316,799,517 million
- U.S. Income Tax Payers: $114,432,092
- U.S. Citizen’s share of the Debt: $53,535
- Debt per Taxpayer: 148,205
Snap shot of the U.S. NATIONAL DEBT CLOCK recorded on October 1, 2013 at 05:40:00UTC. (usdebtclock.org)
Fire Earth 
asdf said
I’ve been a federal employee during shutdown. Don’t worry about backpay, they’ll get it.
Leave it shutdown. Permanently. We don’t need this rotten, stinking, corrupt government. Best thing that can happen is to abolish the ENTIRE federal government. It’s a facade, full of crooks and criminals.
qwer said
“We don’t need this rotten, stinking, corrupt government. Best thing that can happen is to abolish the ENTIRE federal government.”
I AGREE in principle. Unfortunately the current alternatives are even uglier. Imagine having to follow, minute by minute, orders issued by sadistic kid working for Google, Microsoft or Amazon, being brain conditioned by Pfizer, Merck, Glaxo and Sanofi, having to surrender your first born to Monsanto, arrested or executed on sight by G4s commandos for failing to update your McAfee s/w, or AOL membership, ridiculing CNN/FOX, criticizing the state of Israel, or making a derogatory remark about Huff Post stealing other peoples’ original ideas…
jkl said
The solution must be sought in a system void of any centralized powers such as governments and corporations.
Vermont Taxpayer said
Monday, September 30, 2013
Government Shutdown Hinders Budget Transparency
JO COMERFORD, via Derrick Crowe,
dcrowe@nationalpriorities.org
Comerford is executive director of the National Priorities Project. She said today: “Congress will fail to meet the October 1 appropriations deadline, likely leading to a government shutdown. Sadly, this is a familiar crisis for our nation. For the past decade, not once has Congress passed all 12 appropriations bills on time, relying heavily on emergency budgeting by continuing resolution. This trend seriously undermines the transparency of the appropriations process and hurts Americans’ ability to influence how their tax dollars are spent. Worse, this time Congress prioritized the political payoff of protecting military funding over protecting those hardest hit by an economy that still has not recovered for most Americans. There’s no turning away from it: Congress is broken, and it’s deaf to the needs of its constituents.
“Our lawmakers’ failure completely bypasses their responsibility to democratic process. We advise members of Congress and senators to ask themselves, ‘If my constituents wanted to influence the last-minute appropriations we just attempted, how would they have done so?’ We suspect an answer to such a question would be hard to give.
“Government shutdowns and the uncertainty of crisis government-by-continuing-resolution cause deep, insidious damage to the transparency of the appropriations process — and hence, of our democracy. Congress must recommit to an appropriations process that is regular and transparent so that citizens can influence in a meaningful way how their tax dollars are spent — and ensure the government stays open to spend them.”
For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy ipa@accuracy.org