I & I Editorial BoardOnce again, we are being treated to a fusillade of stories about the horrors of a government shutdown. But we invite readers to consider this: Roughly two-thirds of government spending will continue despite the “shutdown.”
In other words, there is absolutely no reason for Republicans to cave on Democratic demands that Medicaid benefits for illegals and Obamacare subsidies for higher-income families be restored.
The longer the federal government remains shut down, the more people will realize how meaningless it is, and the less leverage Democrats will have.
First thing to understand is that nearly 70% of what the federal government does is immune to a shutdown. That’s because nearly 70% of what the government does is write checks to individuals – checks that go out no matter what.
These are called “direct payments for individuals,” and this category alone will cost $4.8 trillion – or more than 15% of the nation’s gross domestic product.
Notably, this category does not include wages paid to federal workers (who will see their pay suspended during a shutdown).
This is money sent to seniors in the form of Social Security checks, money to pay bills for Medicare and Medicaid, food stamps, veterans’ benefits, and the mountain of other “entitlement” programs that have consumed the federal budget.
None of it gets appropriated by Congress each year. It’s all “mandatory” spending.
Next, consider the list of things that won’t be shut down during the “shutdown” (a list compiled by USA Today):
- U.S. Postal Service
- Medicare
- Social Security payments
- Air-traffic control
- Banks
- Courts (local, state, and federal)
- Border security
- Disaster aid
- Federal law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, DEA, prison staff, Secret Service, and Coast Guard.
- The military
Now look at what might be closed:
- National parks
- Visitor centers and tours of federal government buildings
- Smithsonian museums
Democrats claim that a shutdown is devastating to the economy as well, but that’s only because they believe that government spending is an engine of economic growth. But the only real harm – aside from the fact that it reveals the dysfunction of Congress – is that it usually ends up costing taxpayers in backpay, added administrative costs, etc.
Our advice to Republicans: stand your ground. Then keep cutting spending.
— Written by the I&I Editorial Board
Thanks for addressing this issue (regarding the Government Shutdown).
I asked Google, in as many ways as I could think of, who will be affected by the Shutdown. Some of it’s answers said one thing; some said the opposite.
The same with the articles that came up.
It’s nice to know that this newsletter-I&I- that I subscribe to has a long history of being “fact-based.” Yes, it gives the editors opinions on the subject- but they are based on the facts that they display; the opinions are a by-product of the facts (not the other way around).
Relying on Google (who just paid millions of dollars to Trump for defaming him on You Tube) is like depending on the dessert to sprout water.
They are still stealing our money via taxation during this ‘shutdown’.
Respectfully
We go through this same song and dance almost every year, and no government employee ever misses a dollars pay even though they get to take a how ever long it takes Congress to get their act together.
It seems that when I was in school I learned that its Congress’s job to make a budget and present it to the POTUS for approval and signing. When did Congress last do that? hahahaha They can’t live in a budget becasue they are busy giving away OUR TAX MONEY to either foreign nations or some cock-a-mamey idea someone dreamed up, usually ending up with much of the Money being funneled back to the politicians. We give foreign aid to all but 4 nations in the world, we are being saddled with health care for foreigners that are called illegal alliens, USAID opened up a lot of peoples eyes as we saw who and how much our polticans got back into their personal accounts through NGO’s. How long does it take for anyone to realize there is no legal way a new and broke Congress person can enter office with a salary of about $35K/yr and become a millinaire in less than a year and add more than a million each following year. Long term Congress people like Pelosi and Schumer are now in the hundreds of millions of persoal wealth. Where are the controls, the ballot box? hhahahah Thats been corrupted too. Mean while the average American saw the middle class disappear and now we have the struggle of a family going from one paycheck to the next as one class and the Ubber Rich with all the wealth. Why? Politicians screwing things up is why.
If anything I want you to remember two things, 1. Our goverment has NO money other than what we pay it in taxes, those that pay no taxes still bleed us to death. 2. Gold and SIlver and constant values at a ration of 1:20. While we were based on a gold system we had NO inflation, even the silver standard was minimual inflation, but on the Federal Reserve Note system (based on the banking systems promise) inflation has sky rocketed. By the way who is the Federal Reserve System? It is the orgnaized banks in the USA. Why was it organized, becasue Congress was too busy to do the job of regulating our economy as per the Constitution so they gave it to the biggest thieves around. What is the answer? Its very complicated but starts with getting the deadwood out of Congress via the ballot box, anyone over 3 terms in the Senate or 4 terms in the House should be replaced. Congress was not suppose to ever be a profession but an honor to serve. Take back the regulation of our economy and base it on something other than a thin and worthless promise. One that is done prices will almost instantly freeze, but wages will also. Many other changes need to be done, but this is a good start.