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.

I think it absolutely makes sense. Look at how things are going now with career politicians. The govt. in the U.S. was set up originally so we ALL served. You and I should have been Congressman Robbie & Senator Baddog at one point in our lives.

But now you have Senate races with hundreds of millions of dollars needed to even be a candidate. There is talk that Obama's re-election campaign has raised 1 BILLION dollars!

When that kind of money is involved to try and secure a relatively low paying govt. job...then there is no way that it isn't 100% corrupted.

How much better is Harry Reid at being a Senator than any other intelligent citizen of Nevada? How much better is John Boehner at being a Congressman than any other intelligent citizen of Ohio?

And for that matter...are either of those guys really even citizens of their states? I bet neither of them spends more than a few days in their respective states. They live in Washington D.C. and that's where they always are.

The only thing that our politicians are "experienced" in is corruption and graft. None of what they do is the mental equivalent of being a doctor or a scientist.

The average person with intelligence could make decisions on budgets. And they do every day of the week in the private sector. You know...that place that none of our politicians have ever worked. That's why we have a giant deficit and out of control spending and govt. over reaching.

They don't give a shit about us who work because most of them never have and never will. They just make a career out of spending tax dollars, funneling the most money they can to their friends in their state and enjoy their nice health care.

Now apparently they're going to push the deadline back by 72 hours, so they can talk some more.

Quit being attention whores, and just get the job done.

yes... but ... they could kill ... some .... sperms .....
( if they only knew how many were mopped up in peep shows in the 70's, 80's & 90's .... )

Take a few minutes and pray to GOD to save those poor sperms... and while at it ask him to wipe out the muslim world .... as strong pro-life believers....

I am pro-choice for women. But I don't think the govt. should be funding it. I don't think the govt. should be funding a LOT of shit they fund. It's OUR money and I'd like the opportunity to keep more of it and decide for myself how to spend it.

I know that 350 MILLION dollars is "measly" to these assholes since it's just a tiny fraction of 1 percent of what they steal...er, I mean tax us for every year.

But since it's so "measly"...how about giving that sum of money to ME. I'd live like a King for the rest of my life without working another day.

we can start our own government...

It's a fucked up government that allows itself to be shut down.

Our cheques will be late.

Go Fuck Yourself.

:D

Baddog you are old and any idea you have is just the ramblings of an old man.

Do us all a favor and shut the fuck up you senile old fuck.

Dumb ass old man.

Canadian. We use checks not cheques.

For the record, they reached an agreement to keep things going. Sounds like bullshit, but it is a reprieve for a while.

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2011/0...hat-to-expect/

As the reality of a possible government shutdown sets in, Washington Wire looks at what to expect from a temporary closure, including some facts about what happened the last time the government shut down in late-1995 and early-1996.

We will update this list as more information becomes available.

SOCIAL SECURITY: As an entitlement program funded through payroll taxes rather than annual spending bills, Social Security will send out checks, but the White House has warned that a shutdown could affect new applicants.

MILITARY OPERATIONS: Defense Secretary Robert Gates, on a trip to Iraq this week, assured troops they will be paid. ?As a historian, it always occurred to me that a smart thing for government was always to pay the guys with guns first,? Mr. Gates jokingly added. Troops are typically paid twice a month, and Mr. Gates said that if a government shutdown began after Friday, troops would receive half a paycheck for the first two weeks of April. After that, troops wouldn?t be paid until a deal is reached in Washington to fund the government, although they would receive any back pay owed, he added.

Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell said on Tuesday that ?we would still have the authority and the ability to continue key national security activities, including the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, operations in Libya, and humanitarian assistance in Japan, to name a few.?

POSTAL SERVICE: The U.S. Postal Service would see no interruption in service or shutdown of post offices, since it?s funded by customer payments.

INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE: IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman said that if there is a government shutdown, the tax-return due date will remain April 18. Mr. Shulman encouraged taxpayers to e-file returns, because those are processed automatically and refunds would not be delayed. But he said there would be delays in processing paper returns and providing refunds for paper returns.

AIR TRAFFIC: Air-traffic control would continue without interruption. Passenger and baggage screening by the Transportation Security Administration would continue as well, an official said.

BORDER SECURITY: Border security is also listed in government documents as an exempted activity.


NATIONAL PARKS: National Parks and monuments would be closed.

FEDERAL RESERVE: The Federal Reserve, which does not rely on appropriations, would remain open with normal staffing.

GOVERNMENT WORKERS: Some 800,000 federal employees would be furloughed.

GOVERNMENT WORKER PAY: Rep. Jim Moran (D., Va.) predicts, ?There will be no reimbursement? for the time those workers miss because Republicans are so intent on slashing spending and have demonized federal workers. Mr. Moran?s Northern Virginia district is home to 120,000 government employees, and he?s a longtime member of the panel that doles out federal spending.


FEDERAL COURTS: The federal court system would continue running for about 10 working days, using non-appropriated funds such as filing fees, a spokeswoman for the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts said. If the shutdown lasted longer than two weeks then individual courts would designate ?essential employees.?

Judges for federal district courts, appeals courts and Supreme Court justices would be on the job, the spokeswoman said.

Federal public defenders and federal jurors would likely see their pay checks deferred, and some probation officers might be designated as ?nonessential.? The spokeswoman said in previous shut downs some judges delayed civil cases and rescheduled appeals court hearings.

A Supreme Court spokeswoman had no immediate information on how the high court might be affected. But during prior government shutdowns, the Supreme Court continued operations with no interruption, she said.

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION: A federal shutdown would also close the doors at the Smithsonian Institution and the National Zoo beginning Saturday morning. The Smithsonian, which receives 70% of its funding from the U.S. government, stands to lose revenue from museum shops, cafeteria and IMAX theaters.

MEAT AND POULTRY INSPECTIONS: These would continue during a shutdown, the White House Office of Management and Budget said.


OFFSHORE OIL DRILLING PERMITS: Permitting reviews for offshore drilling would not stop in the event of a U.S. government shutdown, according to a contingency plan sent to Interior Department employees. The document, obtained Thursday by Dow Jones Newswires, says ?most offshore energy development activities, including plan reviews, environmental analysis, permitting, inspection, and enforcement work? would ?remain operational? during a government shutdown.

MINE SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION: The White House Office of Management and Budget said regular inspections would be halted.

PASSPORTS: Emergency passport services would continue, but normal processing would be halted.

FINANCIAL REGULATION: OMB said federal agencies would stop stock broker inspections as well receiving and handling corporate financial disclosures. It also said routine oversight of financial markets and most enforcement actions would be put on hold.


COMMODITY FUTURES TRADING COMMISSION: The CFTC said it would keep only 25 of its 675 staff members working in the event of a government shutdown ? to conduct a ?a bare minimum level of oversight and surveillance? of markets. The CFTC posted the contingency plan on its website in case f lawmakers fail to reach a budget agreement leading to a government shutdown after midnight Friday. The plan warned that the ?vast bulk of the agency?s operations will cease,? but that certain employees would stay because ?the complete absence of any oversight or surveillance by the CFTC would create an imminent risk to the protection of property.?

THE RECOVERY ACCOUNTABILITY AND TRANSPARENCY BOARD: The folks who track how the economic stimulus funds are being spent would continue on the job though a government shutdown. It said in a statement that it will continue to collect recipients? reports for the first quarter, and will post data from the reports online at Recovery.gov on April 30.

http://www.sdacash.com/gfy/vince.jpg

We need to get ready for the fall