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Originally posted by BlasteR
I'll start by saying that I work for a company involved with federal contracting so I see exactly what is going on and it directly affects my everyday job. That being said, I am not a federal worker and, at least for us, it will be business as usual until the government can get its act together.
I work on a military installation in Alaska and we have many on-going constructon projects going on at any one time and usually at multiple installations across Alaska and the lower 48.
The only good thing, if you could call it that, is that some government services will remain active. Services like the VA provides to Veterans (including myself) are absolutely critical and fortunately the VA has already recieved advanced appropriations so they won't be affected (The VA wasn't so fortunate last time this happened).
However, during the shutdown Military members serving, fighting and dying for their country will not be paid while Congress does..
This is easily the most disturbing part of this entire ordeal.
Why did the Democrats wait this long? This is a great question but one without an answer as of yet. My primary questions are as follows..
1) What would happen to intelligence services like the FBI, CIA, Secret Service, NSA, etc..?
I would assume that intelligence services would remain un-changed during the shutdown but this is a pretty sketchy aspect of the entire scenario. Even if the intelligence services remain active during the shutdown, who would they report to? Would they still get paid? Would investigations and operations be put on hold?
2) Will the shutdown save taxpayer money or cost us more in the long run?
I recently read an article on Fox News which pointed out that the shutdown could easily cost us MORE but noone really knows for sure. Alot of money and efforts must be put into organizing and preparing the shutdown and determining who is "essential" vs "nonessential", etc..
3) Will the shutdown affect federal tax returns?
Will we even get returns? Due to the economic and budgetary turmoil federal workers that are deemed "non-essential" are not being given any guarantees they will get backpay at all. Some are saying federal workers would even be qualified for unemployment services.. The simple fact that those people aren't being guaranteed their money tells me we aren't even being guaranteed our tax returns. Especially if the government isn't even paying military members.
4) Would the government be opening itself up to millions of lawsuits and/or billions of dollars in settlements for allowing the shutdown to happen?
Thousands of small businesses would be ruined. The security of the entire country would be vulnerable to attack. Then there's the federal worker's union which may continue filing lawsuits until the government could be held accountable for its negligence. Plus, as I mentioned before, it could cost Americans more in the long run excluding any future lawsuits against the government.
-ChriS