If the government shuts down...
 

will the post office still operate?

And my husband will still receive his military pay :)

Guess not, then i am really fucked...................

So long as Facebook isn't shut down, most Americans won't really be paying attention. :1orglaugh

Thank you very much!

The Post Office is a separate entity with its own budget.

:1orglaugh:1orglaugh sad but true!

i think if they can't reach a budget agreement then wars should shut down and the politicians should be required to work without pay until resolved. then resume the killings.

If the government shuts down, I think being not being able to buy a stamp or post a letter is the last of your worries.

:1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh

.. at accelerated pace to catch up on the un-killed ....

Meanwhile, seems Dances With Stars will be on , so no real issue about the "other" thing ...

i don't even understand what it means when they say government shut down... All i know is it happened about 15 years ago before and it's regarding the budget.

anyone have a coles notes explanation what it entails?

I found a list online, and I didn't see much that would cause any problems.

The big thing they are sticking to is small business loans, and paper tax returns.

Here is the List, first thing click the first section to sort by Closed/Ceased
http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2011/...ex.html?hpt=T2

Make sure to read the descriptions if they will or wont be shut down.

Many congressional staffers have received furlough notices; members of Congress continue to get paid.

They will still Collect taxes, just not process returns.... hummmm

which in my opinion is stealing from the American tax payers. We pay them to do their jobs and a government shutdown is a surefire clue that they aren't

i'm confused about it all too but asked a few peeps about the last one and they seemed to think it caused some serious issues. i'm not disagreeing with you, just discussing.

I think it has the potential to cause serious issues, yes. However, the postal service is an integral part of my non-adult business, so I have to plan accordingly.

Honestly, I don't think anyone knows anything, in Gov.
The hand doesn't know what the foot is doing?

I bet several of these jobs overlap anyway, I say start over!

the overlap has got to be obscene right? ugh.

problem is you can't just get rid of them.

They're arguing over 1/10th of 1 percent of the budget. The democrats didnt want to cut any spending initially, and are now agreeing to 38 billion in cuts to discretionary spending (again, 1/10th of 1 percent). The republicans wont take yes for an answer and are refusing to remove riders which are all about social ideology.

IMHO.. shutdown = Obama second term win.

Everything down there's still working, though! Oh, yes...

I was in Arches National Park yesterday and talked with a couple rangers about how it will affect them.

Apparently this happened in the 90's (forget, 92 or 97). Essentially, they lock all the gates to all the national parks, and only mandatory employees will come in to work. Last time they were off work for two weeks, and received the back pay, and did not lose any vacation time they may have.

In a nutshell, the employees got an extra paid vacation and the park service lost the income they would have had if they stayed open.

I don't see anything crucial on that list...:2 cents:

Closed/ceased Treasury IRS No IRS processing of paper tax returns or refunds.

Right before April 15th. Great

..but I'm under the impression that that is only relevant when you are expecting a refund? If you are sending them a check, they probably won't cash it for months = WIN :thumbsup

The govt. was never meant to be so big that it could be "shut down".

For instance...wtf were they doing spending our money holding hearings on baseball players doing steroids? Hell, Barry Bonds is about to go to prison for denying it. They are spending tax money RIGHT NOW on prosecuting him and have his best friend in prison (at taxpayer expense) because he refuses to cooperate with Big Brother.

And the 100 million other things they do that they should not be doing. All the "services" and hundreds of thousands of people employed by the govt. to do all the bullshit clerical work.

The federal govt. is WAY too big.

Congress wasn't even supposed to be in session all the time. They were supposed to live at home and have real jobs and only convene when important national matters needed to be handled.

They have only TWO constitutional purposes.
1. To declare war (and we see how they haven't done that since the 1940's...even though we keep invading countries and bombing them constantly)

2. To pass a federal budget.

And that second one? Well...without getting all political (because I don't think Dems or Republicans are much different in private and all need to be sent home), the budget for 2011 was SUPPOSED to be submitted in 2010. But Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi didn't want to vote it through because of the MASSIVE debt it adds to. They didn't want their losses at the polls to be even worse than they already are.

So they put it off until after the election.

They had a majority in both House and Senate and COULD have passed it without the Republicans doing a damn thing.

And now...with Republicans in the House who were sent to their office by the voters to CUT spending, they would be wrong and going against the people's will if they voted for a bloated budget.

In my humble opinion...the only people who would even notice if the govt. "Shut down" would be people who work for the govt. and/or are on the dole from the govt.

Yes, that is a lot of people. But the majority of us out here who don't want a damn thing to do with the govt. wouldn't even notice it. They could all go home for several months before anyone not dependent on govt. would even notice it.

The govt. is too damn big. And it needs to be reigned in. Don't want to argue politics. That's just my opinion. And it looks like these days about half the people share my opinion while about half want the govt. as big as it is or even bigger.

Yes they will I was just there and saw a sign saying they will be "OPEN"

Just got a call from the lady at the IRS that is doing our TAX Audit

If the shutdown occurs it will delay next weeks meeting we have with them..

eh? 1st u.s. gov shut down was like 1867 or something.

The greater the public inconvenience the greater the political fallout ...

Yep costs them more than its worth to shut down.

Back pay and loss of income.

:1orglaugh You are comparing the situation in 1776 to 2011?

exactly!!!!

Which got us wondering: Is there a silver lining to a shutdown?

Consider:

- Less traffic. Roads around federal office epicenters in every city would see a noticeable drop in motorists. That?s a good thing. A new study by the Environmental Health Perspectives highlights the link between traffic pollution and brain damage.

- You won?t get audited. While the tax filing deadline is still April 18, a federal shutdown means you can stave off the bean counters ? people whose sole purpose is to get you to explain how that monthly Netflix subscription helps your home-based business - at least for a while.

- The White House gift shop will be closed. YIPPEE. You know that miniature flag-striped lapel that can pierce a small organ? We won't be seeing those or that commemorative snow globe your weekend-getaway co-worker erects at their cubicle. Freedom!

? More fish to catch. In Arkansas, anglers will be able to go all out. The Norfolk National Fish Hatchery will release two weeks worth of rainbow and brown trout.

?This would be the week to fish,? Craig Eaton, project leader at the hatchery, told CNN Friday. ?We normally release 10 to 14 deliveries a week,? Eaton said. Each delivery contains about 29,000 fish, he said. Do the math. That's a boatload of fish. Can you say reel deal?

- Bankruptcy deferred. About to go bankrupt? Not after Friday. Federal bankruptcy court will be running largely in name only. The online filing system will be up and running but federal buildings will likely be closed.

? More electricity to go around. With average consumption larger than some states, Washington bureaucrats obviously don't know how to cut off the lights when they leave the office. A shutdown means less strain on the power grid.

that's retarded... if that's how it will really go down, what is the point of having them not show up for work? :1orglaugh

I doubt it will happen that way again. There's too much attention and a poor economy. A certain segment of the population will be livid if employees get back pay from the incident while not working.

My thoughts in a nutshell. I'm against most cuts for social services. However I also believe that the government tends to waste a huge amount of money on all levels (city, county, state, federal). I think the most logical thing to do is to first cut the waste and inefficiency. There are also reasonable ways to do things as well as unreasonable.

Unreasonable: Cut a teacher's pay 15% when she already barely makes 30K.

Reasonable: Cut an administrator's pay to be no more than $150,000 when they are currently being paid $300k.

I was watching the news here in Vegas. And they were talking about the state govt. here wanting to cut teachers jobs to save money. All hell is being raised about it.

And they ran the numbers: The classrooms would now have THREE extra students in them. And statewide they said it would be a savings of 70 million dollars!

Meanwhile representatives of the teachers union were raising hell all over the news and pontificating about how we were hurting the children, etc.

Seems to me that adding 3 extra students on average to every classroom is only gonna hurt all the extra un-needed teachers. And save 70 million dollars.

There is no "situation" other than our government has slowly grown over the years out of proportion to what it is supposed to be and supposed to do.

Congress is now a group of lifetime career politicians. Each with a huge staff. And they are in session every day of the week. Doing stupid shit like hearings on steroids.

Passing new laws EVERY DAY. I think we just may already have enough laws.

But they seem to think that they MUST be in session everyday to vote on all these "important" things.

And just look how great a job they do year after year. Send them all home. We don't need them in session everyday making useless proclamations. That isn't what our govt. was supposed to be.

And if it's laughable that I'm comparing it to 1776...then I would say I am not comparing the world to 1776, but the principles that are supposed to guide our nation. I say that those are timeless. And if they were in place now...we wouldn't be in half the shit that we are today.

I truly believe we should vote EVERY politician out of office every term. One and done. Get rid of the career politicians spending OUR money. Get every able bodied man and woman off the govt. tit and back to being more independent. And get the govt. out of our personal lives and out of our bank accounts as much as possible.

It is WHAT went down, not a guarantee of what WILL go down this time.

That makes sense. Put in a bunch of n00bs that do not have a clue and let them run things. Good thinking.

My mom won't get paid if the gov shuts down. :-( She works for the national parks.