More Lame Reasons to Supposedly Fear the Shutdown
Adam Goldberg in the Huffpo has 11 reasons why a shutdown would be "terrible" for me. Many of these are absurd [sorry, left the link out originally]
1. HUGE NUMBER OF FURLOUGHS: As many as 800,000 of the country's 2.1 million federal workers could be furloughed as the result of a shutdown
There it is again. Apparently the most useful thing these 800,000 people do is draw and spend their paycheck.
9. NATIONAL PARKS, MUSEUMS (AND PANDAS!): The country's national parks would be forced to close without a government funding deal
Parks! I think I have made my point here already (here and here)
2. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION ON HOLD: The head of the Environmental Protection Agency says that the regulator would "effectively shut down" without a deal to fund the government.
8. WORKPLACE SAFETY: Most Labor Department investigations into workplace safety and discrimination would cease if a deal is not reached to avert a shutdown.
6. FOOD SAFETY: Most routine FDA food safety inspections would be suspended in the case of a shutdown.
This is just playing on the public's ignorance of how these agencies operate. I suppose there are low information voters out there who think that EPA officials are stationed at each plant with binoculars looking for emissions and once they get furloughed, companies will race to dump a bunch of stuff while they are not looking. Monitoring is all by data reporting on these issues. The departments conduct audits and investigations retroactively. Delaying these investigations that can take years does absolutely nothing in real time to change health or safety. As for routine food safety inspections, these happen on a timetable of weeks or months, so that a few days delay in an inspection that occurs every 90 days or so is not going to make a difference.
10. STOCK MARKET PANIC: The stock market reacted negatively on Monday amidst worries about a shutdown and an upcoming fight to raise the country's debt ceiling. The lack of a resolution could mean more market madness to come.
Dow up 20 points, S&P up about a half percent as I write this.
7. NO BACK PAY: Employees of one U.S. attorney have been warned that there is a "real possibility" they may not receive back pay if the government shuts down.
Holy crap! Government workers might not get paid for not working.
11. DOJ DISRUPTION: Attorney General Eric Holder on Monday warned that a shutdown would have a "disruptive impact" on operations at the Justice Department. He pointed fingers at the House of Representatives and stated that there are "good, hard-working Americans who are going to suffer because of this dysfunction."
This is hilarious. A partisan rant from one of the most partisan knife-fighters in the Administration is not data, and in fact there is no detail at all here. As it turns out, the DOJ is mostly NOT affected except for some civil litigation, where cases that already drag on for years might take a week longer to complete, and a few lawyers may lose a few days of pay
Under the Justice Department's contingency plan for the shutdown, civil litigation will be curtailed or postponed. The employees of many DOJ agencies will be exempted from furloughs because their roles are deemed "essential."
