The Government Has Shut Down Now What?

I am sure most of you remember the hysteria that was going on before the sequester. Some were saying that it was going to cause massive economic problems. The sequester came and is still going on and guess what? Everything is still functioning. For most people the sequester hasn't changed anything.

For the most part the shutdown is going to be the same way. The mail is still going to run. Social Security checks will still be paid. The military is still on duty. Most average people will not notice a difference. Of the 3.3 million federal employees, only 800,000 have been placed on furlough. Now for those federal employees who are not salaried, this could hurt. Though most likely this pain will be temporary.

This is not the first time there has been a shutdown of the federal government. In 1995/96 the federal government was shut down for 21 days. How many of you remember that? I will be honest before I started researching this post, I did not remember. All of the people that were furloughed in 95/96 received every penny of their back pay. I repeat: THE WORKERS WHO WERE NOT ALLOWED TO GO TO WORK FOR 21 DAYS WERE PAID AS IF THEY HAD GONE TO WORK EVERY SINGLE DAY.

Okay, so now that we have that out of the way, how will the government shutdown affect you? If you are planning on going over seas and do not have a passport yet,you may have problems. You can expect long delays. If you are still expecting a tax return you will be waiting until after the shutdown is over. But you won't have to worry about an audit either. If you are wanting to get a class 3 firearms licence or a federal firearms licence you will see long processing delays. All national parks are closed and several smaller federal office buildings are closed. If you are about to retire you may see a delay in the start of your Social Security paperwork being processed. The one thing that will affect the largest number of people is the shut down of the WIC program.

WIC stands for Women  Infant Children. WIC is not food stamps, but it is very similar. WIC provides vouchers for food to pregnant  women and women with small children who earn below a certain dollar amount. The types of food that can be acquired through WIC is greatly restricted when compared to food stamps. The types of food that are commonly covered by WIC include: milk, formula, baby food, cheese, breakfast cereal, and things like that. This will have an impact on more people than all of the other things combined.

So you see for about 98% of people in the United States there will be no difference. So don't worry and....

Keep It Rural

By Gregg Carter

Like the Rural Economist on Facebook by clicking here.