Government money is frozen. The government can't pay any government employees, nor social securities.

So if you depend on government money, you're ♥♥♥♥♥♥.

Congress failed to agree on a budget due to a disagreement between the Democrats (who want to ensure that more Americans are able to afford healthcare) and Republicans (who are following orders from Trump to reject healthcare for Americans).
As a result, the government lacks funding to operate, nonessential government employees have been furloughed (placed on unpaid leave) while essential government employees are required to work without pay.

Does it mean you also don't have to pay taxes?

Apparently the US doesn´t really form a government, so the opposition can block them. And because they haven´t figured out what to do in such situations they agreed that doing nothing is the best course of action. Which includes paying (or rather not paying) the people working for the government. The "lawmakers" (politicians and their friends) on the other hand would of course still receive the money, because they´re poor people. But workers have no rights and are in general considered scum, so they don´t really need money. If they need food, they have guns and can hunt. Or they just need to work harder - for the sake of it. Easy. This is how the founding fathers envisioned it.

Originally posted by Magic A. I.:

Does it mean you also don't have to pay taxes? :ThinkingAnne:

I suppose that "essential services" are excluded. Which is everything which earns money. Like - how bad is it if a person who relies on government money dies? At the end of the day the taxpayer saves money. Win Win. Oh - and working without pay is the actual American dream. The definition of hard work. "Hey - i worked 5 weeks without pay, man. I´m the toughest, most reckless, worker in this ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ country. Hell yeah." Like, who could say that? Me not - i went with an employer to the court three times because he would insist i should do overtime without pay. I´m a lazy worker. Not so tough. But i think the whole point of work is that i get money out of it. This is apparently not the US philosophy of it.

In US (federal) politics Congress decides what to spend money on, how much, and when, and what wriggle room the executive has to choose how/when/how much to spend and on what. In theory the President or other executive agencies spending too little or too much compared to what Congress has told them to can cause them to get in trouble (for example a President can be impeached for spending too little, too much, or on things he hasn't been given authority to spend it on).

Conversely Congress has also created laws that limit how much money the federal government can spend, and going over that limit can also get the President/executive agencies in trouble.

So a government shutdown happens when these two laws come into conflict with each other, because Congress has carried on approving spending bills, tax cuts, but not choosing to increase the debt limit. So to satisfy both laws as best they can the President/executive have to find things that they aren't absolutely required to spend right now and defer them (even if wastes a load of money in the long term). If the debt limit is still not raised by Congress more and more actions have to be taken to avoid going over the limit.

For example "non-essential" government workers are frequently "furloughed" - basically unpaid mandatory leave until the situation is sorted out. In past shutdowns their missed pay for the furlough period has been paid to them afterwards once the debt limit was raised - which can be seen as wasteful as they didn't work during that period, but equally if government jobs came with a constant risk of forced unpaid vacations and then expected after some semi-random period to start working again as if nothing had happened, not many people would work for the government, it is no doubt bad enough to have to deal with sudden uncontrolled gaps in being paid for most such workers, at least after the debt limit is raised they can pay back loans they might have had to take out to pay rent and eat while the government was arguing with itself.

its a scam, every year around christmas

The states keep governing like normal and taxing, but the superfluous federals stop governing excwpt for super important stuff like paying senators

like hitting the power button on a computer, but swollen to downright grotesque proportions.

Since the men in suits are too scared to fight a civil war they'll instead freeze the mcdonalds vouchers for the guy in the wheelchair :/

Incidentally, Congress is still collecting pay - and they don't even have to go to work. Some, but not all, of that will be in the form of back pay once they finally decide to come back from their taxpayer-defrauding paid vacation.

Meanwhile, if you're considered a "critical" federal employee (mostly grunt labor jobs), you haven't had a single day off but now you're not getting paid for it. And there won't necessarily be any back pay.


Naturally, none of this has much impact on corporate bribery lobbyism, which continues as usual during the shutdown.

most nations have the sensible system of :

people elect parlement members.. the mayority of these form a coalition that make policies.
including a finance per year.. (where they decleare for each wellfare, and tax how much they will be increased or decreased...)

while the parlement can at each time make an alteration to these plans.. this will only take efford for furture payments...

payment of this is handled by the ministery of finance.. and it will loan whatever is needed...
nobody can stop that
=======

usa has this insane system where one group deciedes the plans.. but when to make those plans happen.. money need to be loaned.. another group needs to vote if they allow that..

thus instead of just hey we borrow now to much.. parlement members haggling about where to cut expenses/alter taxes... while payment continue..

this second group completely freezes the account..

it is like where most the world in case of an overdraw always allow it but just go talk as partners how to cut expenses/increase income...
the usa just blocks paying rent, utility, insurance, everything once the wage of this month is used... it's insane..

even worse analogy would be... when you negociated with your partner a living standard on what kind of food you would eat.. what hobbies the children are allowed to do.. what kind of subscriptions to make...
they still set you a maximum budget for groceries and fuel.. to which you must haggle everytime you want that alowance to be increase... and they use thet to everytime force you to give something you want.. while never giving up something you want..

it is crap!

What is a government shutdown?
-The government needs money to operate every year that is approved by Congress.
-If Congress can't agree on a budget past a certain date, then the government shutdown happens.

During the shutdown essential workers have to stay working.
-Social Security checks still go out
-Air traffic control, TSA, border patrol
-Military (active duty)
-Hospitals (VA, Medicare payments)

Non-essential go home or areas of the government shutdown.
-National parks & museums
- Passport offices & some federal courts
- FDA food inspections slow down
-IRS tax refunds may delay


Also certain programs like SNAP (food stamps) stops being funded.
IF the government reopens federal workers will get back pay and programs will receive funding.

What's happening with the current shutdown?
ACA (Obamacare) subsides to insurance companies is expiring, Democrats want to add it to the spending bill. Republicans want to pass a short-term (CR) bill that funds the essentials with no extra policy until Nov 21st. This would include SNAP and non-essential workers, museums, etc.
And want to negotiate ACA and other healthcare concerns later.

Democrats have voted 12 times to keep the government closed, Republicans have voted 12 times to re-open the government.
53 Republicans vote to re-open it with a CR bill.

1 Republican is voting to keep the government closed. Rand Paul he wants to see more cut off the budget

2 Democrats want to re-open the government, they're worried about people on food stamps.

Rest of the Democrats are against re-opening the government until they get their political demands met.

you want : low taxes, subsidy for big corporations, big army, balanced budget
I want : public education, public healthcare, public transportation, welfare, high taxes

than you negociate... settling for
you get low taxes and big army and corporate subsidy
I get education, healthcare and welfare
**you accept a defficit
**I accept a non excistant public transportation

than when the money runs out..you suddenly are all EH EH money ran out... no more welfare!
to which I could angrely respond.. just cut army expenses/raise taxes

meanwhile both those lads in the army, education and hospitals aint getting paid, people not recieve wellfare, and coporations aint getting their subsidy..
.. or a lot of people suffer cause of this idiotic system of yours..

rather than just accepting you agreed on a policy
there should be no debt ceiling at all.. there should be an agreement to keep deficit below x % but it is upto the sitting cabinent if they actually agree on policies that do that..

I just read a little about this thing and I must say that it all sounds very surreal. I just can't see it as a real thing and instead it reads like something from a book/movie!

I'm kinda speechless about it. How can this thing be OK as a system? Or am I just the weird one here as I'm not from the USA and people in the USA think of this as a normal thing?