BREAKING NEWS! US GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN for the 1st time in 17 YEARS! (BUDGET CRISIS!)
The US federal government is partially shutting down after the Congress
failed to fund its work amid a Republican drive to defund the Obamacare
healthcare program. President Obama addressed to US troops to boost
their confidence amid the crisis.
The 'essential' federal
services will continue working despite the shutdown. Gerald Celente,
publisher of the Trends journal, says careful of the hype - the warnings
of a collapse have been strongly exaggerated.
The partial
shutdown will leave some essential government functions, including
national security and public safety, intact. It's not clear how long the
situation will continue, with lawmakers expected to take a further vote
in a matter of hours.
If the shutdown persists, it will affect
an estimated 800,000 of public workers, who will be forced into unpaid
leave as the government would be unable to fund their employment.
National parks and most federal offices are closed, as is almost all of
NASA, except for Mission Control in Houston.
With the threat of a
federal government shutdown hanging over the US economy, here is a
handy list of the possible effects American citizens and the rest of the
world could face if no deal is reached to continue funding.
1 Countdown to US default looms
A halt of US government operations would drag the world's biggest
economy closer to bankruptcy, something unprecedented in US history. If
no budget deal is done, the US would bump up against their "debt
ceiling" and run out of money by October 17. By then, the US government
would have less than $30 billion cash on hand, Treasury Secretary Jacob
Lew has calculated.
2 Hundreds of thousands of federal employees on furlough
A one-time layoff of 800,000 people working for the US government
would erode the earlier projected economic growth of 2.5 percent for the
fourth quarter of 2013 by about 0.32 percentage points, according to a
forecast by Mark Zandi, chief economist and co-founder of Moody's
Analytics. That projection assumes a two-week shutdown. If it drags into
a whole month, the loss of GDP would rise to 1.4 percentage points.
3 Troops' paychecks stopped
About 1.4 million military active-duty personnel would keep on
working, but with their paychecks delayed. Approval for troops'
paychecks is dependent on Obama's proposed 2014 federal budget being
passed by Congress.
4 Women and children's nutrition program threatened
Pregnant women and new moms who are poor and facing "nutrition risk"
won't be able to buy healthy food, as a looming shutdown would put
bracers on the $6 billion Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for
Women Infants and Children (WIC).
5 $85 billion in cuts to federal programs
When
a shutdown was last threatened in March 2013, it would have resulted in
$85 billion in automatic cuts in spending on federal programs -- many
aimed at alleviating social hardship. The cuts, known as sequestration,
would affect grants to local organizations and funds that keep those
programs running.
6 Housing loans halted
US federal programs
that provide for about 30 percent of all new loans in the housing market
-- a backbone of the country's economy -- will be shut down. Government
funding of new businesses will also be halted, as well as workplace
health and safety inspections.
7 Trade talks scuppered?
US
plans to have a Pacific trade deal, the Trans Pacific Partnership,
signed with the US's Asian partners could stall, as Obama may decide not
to travel to this weekend's Bali, Indonesia meeting of the Asia-Pacific
Economic Cooperation nations. While he could still go if no deal is
done by then, it could be a gift for his Republican opponents if Obama
was seen to be jetting off to a tropical paradise at a time when federal
employees were sent home without pay.
8 Visa delays likely
Thousands of Americans may not be able to get passports for foreign
travel, and tourists travelling to the US will likely face delays in
visa processing. During the last government shutdown in 1996-97, some
20,000-30,000 applications remained unprocessed daily.
9 Space program on hold
Space agency NASA will be hit the most, as the agency will need to
furlough about 97 percent of its employees, though it will continue to
keep workers at Mission Control in Houston and elsewhere to support the
International Space Station, where the two NASA astronauts currently on
board, Michael Hopkins and Karen Nyberg, may not know whether they have
jobs to come back to.
10 National parks, museums and zoos would close to the public
State-funded
museums, art galleries and zoos across the country would keep their
doors closed Tuesday, leaving thousands of employees furloughed and
visitors unable to see attractions. US national parks, from Yosemite to
the Shenandoahs, as well as Washington's National Mall, Lincoln Memorial
and Constitution Gardens, would also be closed.
