What happens when the government shuts down?

Yesterday the Republican controlled House voted 235 - 189 for a new Continuing Resolution containing some $60 billion in spending cuts. This new Continuing Resolution is to replace the one that runs out on March 4th.  Senate Democrats are not supporting the House's new CR.  Without a new Continuing Resolution, the government must shutdown.


So, what happens when the government shuts down? Does granny have to eat dog food because Social Security stops mailing her checks? Will your house get foreclosed on because my mortgage payment is late due to the Post Office closing? Will America be invaded because there is no Border Patrol?  


The answer to all of the above is NO!  This is because, despite the term "government shutdown", the government doesn't completely shutdown. Essential services and personnel will still continue to function throughout the "shutdown".


Unless Obama orders the Office of Management and Budget to redefine the meaning of  "essential services and personnel", these are the services and personnel that will continue to function.

Big Government [emphasis mine]: The CRS report is explicit regarding those government services that will not be disrupted. Cut and pasted directly from the report:

Essential Services and Personnel

A 1980 Office of Management and Budget (OMB) memorandum defines “essential” government services and “essential” employees as those:

1. providing for the national security, including the conduct of foreign relations essential to the national security or the safety of life and property;
2. providing for benefit payments and the performance of contract obligations under no-year or multi-year or other funds remaining available for those purposes;
3. conducting essential activities to the extent that they protect life and property, including:

• medical care of inpatients and emergency outpatient care;
• activities essential to ensure continued public health and safety, including safe use of food, drugs, and hazardous materials;
• continuance of air traffic control and other transportation safety functions and the protection of transport property;
• border and coastal protection and surveillance;
• protection of federal lands, buildings, waterways, equipment and other property owned by the United States;
• care of prisoners and other persons in the custody of the United States;
• law enforcement and criminal investigations;
• emergency and disaster assistance;
• activities that ensure production of power and maintenance of the power distribution system;
• activities essential to the preservation of the essential elements of the money and banking system of the United States, including borrowing and tax collection activities of the Treasury; and
• activities necessary to maintain protection of research property.

Let me be absolutely clear here. There will be no disruption in Social Security, welfare, civil service retirement, or any other kind of open-ended mandatory program payments. The mail will not stop because the Post Office is largely self-funding (with you know, those stamps you buy to mail things with). Air traffic controllers will not go on furlough, jets will keep flying, the Border Patrol will keep on attempting to secure the border that Janet Napolitano wants unsecured, and our military will stay in the fight, however poorly and treasonously led by the current Commander-in-Chief.

Will there be adverse effects? Absolutely. We are talking about a government shutdown. But they are not the dire consequences Democrats are hyping. The only people who will really notice the government shutdown are government workers themselves, and most importantly, Congressional Democrats.

Notice that the CRS Report link is directly from the Democrats’ House Rules Committee website. So the Democrats know all this, but they blatantly lie about it. They have an advantage in doing this because the media relentlessly echoes their message.

Do not allow the media or hyperventilating Democrats scare you into believing that the world will come to an end if the government shuts down.   I advise you to go to the Congressional Research Service report and read for yourself exactly what true effects are of a government shutdown. 

Via: CNBC News

Via: Big Government