The U.S. Government shut down at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday, October 1, and it’s not really a big deal.
Having been through a government shutdown before, as a U.S. Senate staffer, I can tell you a couple of things happen.
The first is that the media immediately decries the shutdown. In Washington, D.C., the local media interviews government workers about how they are handling the hardship—a hardship that hit them just a couple of hours earlier. The media act as if their entire world has come to an end.
And trust me, it hasn’t.
The opposing party, in this case the Democrats, gins up as much hysteria as it can about the government services that are shutting down. Voter fear is their stock-in-trade at moments like this.
But the U.S. military does not disband, leaving us immediately vulnerable to attack. Social Security checks keep coming, mostly because no elected official would ever withstand the backlash from seniors dependent on those funds.
Sure, a lot of things do come to a stop—one of which is Congress itself. Congressional staff technically have to stay home during the shutdown, with only essential staffers, along with Representatives and Senators, left to work through the deal to reopen the government.
But I learned a long time ago that Congress being out is actually a good thing. Back in the 90s, when I told my dad the government had shut down, his immediate response was, “Good, they can’t screw anything up.”
As a business owner, he had a particular disdain for much of what Congress did, pointing out that elected officials that have never run a business don’t know much about what actually helps businesses succeed.
Well, not the small ones, anyway. The larger businesses, with their well-paid lobbyists and substantial PACs, get their legislation passed. And members of both the House and the Senate seem to do quite well making well-timed stock trades around passage of that legislation.
Somebody besides the company executives needs to make generational wealth, right?
The Government will start back up sooner rather than later, though, with Trump in charge, it’s possible it will be a bit later than previous shutdowns.
But here’s the kicker. Let’s say it ends up being a full two-week shutdown. One would think that the cost of running the Government during those two weeks would be saved. If people aren’t working there’s no need to pay them, right?
Wrong. Oh, so wrong. When the Government comes back in, the federal employees who have been temporarily furloughed for two weeks will still get their full back pay. This is Government, not business, after all.
And despite knowing this, the charade that federal employees are facing great hardships plays out, like clockwork. Those man-on-the-street interviews during the shutdown never bring up that the poor federal employees will never actually miss a paycheck.
Now, if Trump follows through with a broader reduction in federal programs and their staffing, well, don’t fret, because that won’t make much of a dent in the nearly $37.5 trillion we’ve racked up in U.S. federal debt.
By comparison, spending in Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 was approximately $6.75 trillion, or a little more than one-fifth of our current debt. That includes $1.8 trillion in FY 2024 budget deficit.
Shutdowns are a big deal, but only for their performative political value. Let’s just pray that House members and Senators can get back to work building that all-so-important generational wealth they so desperately need to survive as public servants.
— Paul Erhardt, Managing Editor of the Outdoor Wire Digital Network
