The Government Is Shutting Down?

@ Kurtni
Thanks. I changed my originally wording to "chosen".

My mom works in HR at a government contractor and she now has to decide on people they're going to furlough, and one of her friend's and her friend's husband are being furloughed. Way to go US government.

The whole thing's ridiculous. >_> Now people who really need the money, won't be getting their money because of how messed up the government is and how it screwed our country over. I wonder how long it'll last because my aunt uses the WIC thing and she can barely afford to take care of her daughters without it, let alone herself, and the whole shut down thing is ridiculous.

I wonder though...

Does this whole government shut down thing have any effect on people who retired or getting social security checks?

@ Lucy; Nyu; Hina
It has some impact on them. Here is an article describing it better than me.

Its not just happening in the US things similar to this are happening everywhere, and it is always the people lower down who suffer. those up the top will still grt their pay, and bonuses though. I'm actually surprised it hasn't happened there before now... well, since it happened last time.

@ lady_enigma
Do you have links or anything? I just haven't heard of other countries having their government shut down and I'm sure they would be drawing comparisons at this point.

gonna hear dru roar.:

@ lady_enigma
Do you have links or anything? I just haven't heard of other countries having their government shut down and I'm sure they would be drawing comparisons at this point.

I saw other countries brought up, but it's usually in a "this country had some crazy shit going on and they *didn't* shut down their governments" Ie, CNN did a story about how Belgium didn't have an organized legislative party for over 500 days because of partisanism, but the government didn't shut down. In the absence of new laws or missed deadlines, things defaulted to the previously agreed upon budget. I don't see why our government doesn't work that way. How can shutting down be the best option? If our government worked this way, the GOP couldn't threaten a shutdown- they would have no incentive to refuse a budget bill, it would force compromise.

@ Kurtni

@ gonna hear dru roar.

I didnt mean exactly this is happening in other countries just that similar things are happening the world over. Your governments way of doing what many other governments have done or are doing, is to go into shut down. . Either way it's still the people down the bottom who will suffer, and it's something to be taken into account in the next election.

It isnt a complete shut down either, it's partial. Things will work out, it could take a while but things will be sorted out eventually

@ lady_enigma
If it comes to the 24th of September, we won't be able to pay our interest to China or other countries we owe money to. The U.S. dollar will no longer be the standard of currency and the United States will lose a lot of its economic status. I was listening to them talk about it on the news yesterday.

"Eventually" has to come before the 24th for us or the consequences are going to be even more dire than starving children, vets without benefits, and a lack of food inspection.

From what my dad heard on the news today, apparently a lot of Republicans have changed their minds and want to vote on whatever it is (which I think would stop the government shut down at this point) but Boehner is keeping them from doing a vote. Way to go, Boehner.

This is just so terribly stressful for my family. My dad's been furloughed and while my mom is currently working, she just started a new job and is still waiting for a regular paycheck. As a freshman in college I haven't had the time to find a part time job (beyond a seasonal job I work every year around this time which doesn't pay that much) that can fit with my schedule. Then my sister's GI Bill is possibly in jeopardy...she'll get her paycheck for October but if the shutdown goes on for much longer her future checks could be either delayed or suspended. We're not sure how her tuition/schooling will be affected at this point, either.

I just hope this shutdown doesn't last for too much longer, I don't know if we can handle a month or so of this. =/

@ consulting detective
That's beyond stressful, I agree.
I'm in a similar situation except it's my mother who's on furlough and she works overseas so my dad is really
upset and wants her back home ASAP. My parents are really going back and forth about this and I feel so bad.

@ kitsch
I'm so sorry to hear that. I thought it was hard having my sister a few states away (she's currently living/going to school in NYC, my parents and I are in Delaware), I can only imagine if she was still in the USAF and deployed somewhere. I hope everything works out soon so that your family can settle down as well.

Hearing all these stories about people's families being affected...do the flippant posts about the shutdown bother you guys? Or is it just me being super sensitive? Since I stayed up late the night before to see if the shutdown was going to happen, and when it was confirmed, I was the only one on my tumblr dashboard making posts about it and being upset. Almost immediately after my few posts, there was an onslaught of my mutual followers making passive aggressive "the US government doesn't do anything anyways, there's no reason to be upset, everyone needs to calm down as the US Senate acts like a baby for a few days" posts and it really got to me, because the shutdown is affecting my family in a detrimental way. And I dunno, it's just a little bit frustrating and now I feel like I can't talk about my stresses over it.

@ consulting detective
Thank you, that's very kind, I hope things go well for yours as well. It's just terrible because my ma was so
excited about this new job since her last one made her feel so badly and now this happens. She's a civilian, living
away from her family, and she's got to be strong for me and my dad. That's just overwhelming.

People who make those insensitive posts probably have no idea what it's like on the other side of the coin
(aka the people who are affected the most by this). This is one of the reasons why I stopped using Tumblr;
the opinions on certain things got to be too much for me to sift through. The passive aggressive comments, to me,
are very cowardly on their part and show how inconsiderate and self-absorbed some people can be.

@ consulting detective
I think the people who are saying "who cares" about the shutdown don't even deserve to be Americans, so it's not just you. It sickens me that there are people who can't think outside of their little bubble. I'm very fortunate that no direct effects of the shutdown have hit me yet. I will still get food stamps this month. But I'm very aware of the shit that is going on and it scares the shit out of me. Because if it hasn't effected me directly, it just hasn't effected me directly yet. We are all going to be touched by the ripples of this; it could take awhile to come back and bite us in the ass, but this effects all Americans, not just the ones on WIC or the soldiers.

The commissary on our base closed because of it.

Just wanted to say I hope you guys don't think my comments were me not caring, I hope they came across as, well just optimism really, because as hard as it is to be optimistic, you need to be so in tricky situations, just have that little bit of faith that things will work out. They have to. At some point, progress will be made. From what the news is reporting, some progress, albeit minor, is already being made. So keep your chins up, things may be hard, but like I said, have faith that things will get better.

@ kitsch

Thank you darling I'm so sorry to hear that, that's just horrible. I hope your mom doesn't have to deal with that situation for long.

Yeah, I mean I mentioned tumblr because that's where it started, but it was also like sites like Facebook too. Just pretty much social media in general.
It just seems so inconceivable to me not to understand - even if you're not being affected directly by it, but with all the news and whatnot, I don't see how you can say "we're all going to be okay" when it's clear that not everyone will. =/

@ gonna hear dru roar.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who's upset by the comments. I hope that the shutdown will end quickly so you won't have to feel the effects of it.
That sucks about the commissary, though. Both for the workers, and for the people who benefited from the lower prices.

@ lady_enigma

In case you thought it was your comments that prompted what I said, I just wanted to let you know - it definitely wasn't! I understand where you were coming from, and what you were trying to say, and so my mention about being upset by certain comments was not at all aimed at you. There's a difference between saying "I know things are hard but let's all hope for the better soon and that progress is being made" versus comments that I was seeing which were literally saying, "everybody needs to stop freaking out because the government shutdown will not affect you". It was latter that was making me upset.

Hey guys, to anyone this may effect: the House just passed a bill that will ensure that the furloughed government workers will get retroactive pay after the government reopens. Source.

Unfortunately still no word on when the government will be reopened though.

@ consulting detective
My mother has gone back to work, no pay, but glad that the bill went through.
Everyone else who was affected, you're in my thoughts & prayers.