The US government shut down

The United States government shutdown

For the first time in nearly two decades, the federal government staggered into a partial shutdown Monday at midnight after congressional Republicans stubbornly demanded changes in the nation's health care law as the price for essential federal funding and President Barack Obama and Democrats adamantly refused. With members of Congress still working to reach an agreement on spending, the U.S. government shut down at 12 am. Oct，on Tuesday.

An estimated 800,000 federal workers face furloughs because of the shutdown, though many were told to work a half day Tuesday. As Congress gridlocked, Obama said a "shutdown will have a very real economic impact on real people, right away," with hundreds of thousands of federal workers furloughed and veterans' centers, national parks, most of the space agency and other government operations shuttered. Some critical services such as patrolling the borders and inspecting meat would continue. Social Security benefits would be sent, and the Medicare and Medicaid health care programs for the elderly and poor would continue to pay doctors and hospitals. US troops were shielded from any damage to their wallets when Obama signed legislation assuring the military would be paid in the in the event of a shutdown.

The economic cost of the country’s first government shutdown in 17 years is staggering. One estimate pegs the daily losses to businesses,

tourism and lost wages at $300 million a day - or $1.6 billion each week. Overall, the last time the US government shut down in 1995 for 21 days, it cost the federal government $1.5bn (￡927m) - that's $2.1bn (￡1.3bn) in today's dollars. Goldman Sachs estimates a three-week shutdown could shave as much as 0.9% from US GDP this quarter.

The effects have brought out protesters in big cities and small towns, including Sunday in Washington where several hundred people tore down barricades erected at the closed monuments and memorials on the National Mall. They took some of the barricades to the White House along with signs critical of U.S. President Barack Obama.Congressman Ted Cruz, one of the leading Republicans who refused to fund the government without changes to Mr. Obama's signature healthcare legislation, spoke to the crowd at the National World War 2 Memorial. He said “Let me ask a simple question: why is the federal government spending money to erect barricades to keep veterans out of this memorial?" Demonstrators also went to the U.S. Capitol Sunday to voice their criticism of Congress, which has repeatedly failed to agree on a budget and relied on so-called continuing resolutions to fund the government for several years.

When I heard this news, I was shocked. I didn’t know that a government can stop working because of internal problem. I think the US system is too loose, less of unity. When the government shut down, it

brings many inconveniences to the public and let many people be unemployed and investors would lose faith in the U.S. economy, the value of the dollar would plunge, interest rates would soar and unemployment would rise.

But it not represents it is a bad thing. It also reflects the transparency of the US government. Each item of expenditure is transparent. Each system has its disadvantages and advantages. It is hard to say which one is better. The US government has not only shut down for one time and each time the government can tackle it smoothly. But during the period of shut down, it brings many problems, so how to solve this problem forever, it a question to American government.

Kelly

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