thewayne: (Cyranose)
[personal profile] thewayne
"I want to punish these people. Sorry to say that, but that's what I want to do."
—Fox Business host Stuart Varney, on federal employees seeking back pay for time furloughed

I can't imagine how many federal employees that live paycheck to paycheck who took a big hit. When I was working full-time, I usually had enough of a reserve that my bills were paid a month in advance, but it would definitely be a disruption if I were out of work for two weeks.

The worst part about this last-minute deal is that even though technically the debt ceiling was raised before the deadline, it probably will still mean a hit on the USA's credit rating. The same thing happened in 1979, in that case they resolved the shutdown with a couple of days to spare, but they still took a hit on the interest paid on the securities the government issued. Over time it amounted to over $12 billion. This time that number will start with a T.

It will also take some to get government functions spun up again. Not everyone has access to the internet, and a lot of email systems were taken offline. It's a lot of people to notify and mobilize. And a lot of people are going to have to restart child care arrangements, etc. It's not flipping a light switch off and on.

And I first heard of paying the employees for their furlough from (R) house members, not from the employees.
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