Posted on 10/07/2013 6:33:38 AM PDT by Qbert
Everyone knows the phrase "government shutdown" doesn't mean the entire U.S. government is shut down. So in a partial government shutdown, like the one underway at the moment, how much of the government is actually shut down, and how much is not?
One way to measure that is in how much money the government spends. In a conversation Thursday, a Republican member of Congress mentioned that the military pay act, passed by Congress and signed by President Obama at the beginning of the shutdown, is actually a huge percentage of the government's discretionary spending in any given year. And that is still flowing. So if you took that money, and added it to all the entitlement spending that is unaffected by a shutdown, plus all the areas of spending that are exempted from a shutdown, and added it all together, how much of the federal government's total spending is still underway even though the government is technically shut down?
I asked a Republican source on the Senate Budget Committee for an estimate. This was the answer: "Based on estimates drawn from CBO and OMB data, 83 percent of government operations will continue. This figure assumes that the government pays amounts due on appropriations obligated before the shutdown ($512 billion), spends $225 billion on exempted military and civilian personnel, pays entitlement benefits for those found eligible before the shutdown (about $2 trillion), and pays interest costs when due ($237 billion). This is about 83 percent of projected 2014 spending of $3.6 trillion."
So the government shutdown, at least as measured by money spent, is really a 17 percent government shutdown. Perhaps that is why the effects of the shutdown, beyond some of the most visible problems, like at the monuments and memorials on the Washington Mall, don't seem to have the expected intensity. Seventeen percent of federal expenditures is still a huge amount of money, and the shutdown is affecting many people. But many more who are dependent on federal dollars are still receiving their money, either as salary, transfer payment, or in some other form. Viewed that way, it's no wonder both Republicans and Democrats appear to believe they can last the shutdown out, at least for a couple of weeks until they try to resolve the debt limit crisis due to arrive October 17.
How about “The Barry-cade Drama”?
Except for the things that most directly affect the public.
Like shutting down the the Amber Alert Hotline, closing national parks, shutting down privately run hotels and inns on federal land, and closing off access to memorials and monuments.
Pentagon Will Order Almost All Furloughed Civilian Employees Back To Work
I’d be okay with a 17% budget reduction... maybe even finally breaking the back of baseline budgeting.
Right-sizing.
“Spite-out”
“Project Shun”
“Th’ Obama Cried Wolf”
Office of Management and Budget, Historical Tables, Table 1.3; http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/Historicals/
Consider the emotions today of all those Federal Employees who have young children.
They are not going to be happy, happy, happy with Barry’s AG Eric Holder for stopping the National AMBER ALERT Program over the weekend.
Surely, Mr. Fast and Furious Holder thought this Amber Alert cancellation through and made an exception for Michelle Obama’s two darling children?
BTW, I wonder if Barry, General of the Senate Harry “Mean Ol’ Guy” Reid, and Colonel of her former self Nancy “Always in a fog” Pelosi realize that other Federal employees ALSO have young children that need to be protected by the National Amber Alert Program?
BTW, BTW, the boy-toy, wanna-be dictator Barry Soetoro, aka Mr. Michelle Obama, COULD order his personal Corporate Jet, Air Force One, to be mothballed, by Executive Order, of course. (He must have a few blank EO forms lying around his empty chair, or his Golf bag - - - ).
That simple gesture just might, could, show that Barry also “feels our pain.”
Barry could also BARRYCADE his own personal Golf Course, and BARRYCADE the Oceans, only on Federal land, of course. (Governors are so touchy these days about THEIR State’s shorelines)!
Leftists’ biggest fear is that people will discover that they, and the government, is largely irrelevant in their everyday lives.
When the people say “we don’t need you”, the leftists’ reason for existance ceases to exist.
Many on the right are calling it the Shutnado, sarcastically. There is even a shutnado twitter feed.
"Government spending is cut 17%? That takes us back to 2008 levels! Five short years ago!"
Yep.
Plus, I say, if iconic, left-wing newspapers like the NY Slimes and the Washington ComPost get to lighten their loads and solve some business problems by letting some of their non-essential workers go... then why should the government be any different?
That's interesting. It also means that, if you look at the numbers, even a shut-down government runs a deficit and spends more than it takes in. According to Wikipedia, the current planned budget is 3.8 trillion, and expected income will be 2.9 trillion, for a deficit of 900 billion.
But, if 17% of the government is really shut down (and that may be high, because of votes to guarantee back pay to "furloughed" non-essential employees), the spending cut would be roughly $600 billion, so we'd still spend at a $3.2 trillion rate, leaving a deficit between $200 and $300 billion!
"Many on the right are calling it the Shutnado, sarcastically. There is even a shutnado twitter feed."
LOL.
The problem is that the entitlement programs (SS and Medicare) and other mandatory spending like Medicaid, food stamps, and debt servicing costs have been growing every year and will continue to do so as 10,000 baby boomers retire daily over the next 22 years. By 2030 one out of every 5 Americans will be 65 or older. Almost two thirds of our budget now are spent on these programs. We can never go back to 2008 levels of spending.
Dummies. Now people think that nothing happens when the government "shuts down."
Can anyone in the class tell us how we can use this against them? Discuss.
Thank you for this statistic. Very informative. Takes us back to 2008 levels? Somehow we managed.
I don't know how we did it. I vaguely recall how tough times were then...my kids walked to school barefoot in three feet of snow and we fed them stale cardboard and vinegar for after school snacks.
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