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Government facing possible shutdown March 4
The U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.
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Kai Ryssdal: There's not a whole lot of collective bargaining going on in Washington D.C. In fact, there's not much bargaining going on at all. And that's making a federal government shutdown look more likely by the day.
Democrats and Republicans are miles apart over a funding plan to keep the government running through early April, let alone finding a way to pay for things through the rest of the fiscal year this fall. The current authorization expires a week from Friday.
Our Washington bureau chief John Dimsdale reports.
John Dimsdale: After the 1995 government shutdown, agencies put together contingency plans. So they should be more prepared, says New York University government professor Paul Light.
Paul Light: They're getting ready to the extent they can. In the Forest Service, the Park Service, what they're getting ready are the chains and the padlocks to close the gates.
Agencies first decide what emergency jobs won't be furloughed when the government closes down. That creates some strange inequities, says Donald Kettl at the University of Maryland.
Donald Kettl: The FBI will still be going out trying to catch bad guys. The crucial Middle East desks at the State Department will continue to stay open. On the other hand, the people at the Centers for Disease Control that monitor whether or not the flu is spreading may not be at work.
Kettl says most non-essential government services are routine -- processing passport applications at the State Department, for example. Or investigating corporate wrongdoing at the Securities and Exchange Commission. You can't prepare for an interruption; you just turn out the lights and close the door. What's always a surprise, says Kettl, is coming back when the shutdown is over.
Kettl: 'Wow, where did all that paper come from?' It's a matter of trying to sort through what the priorities are. What's most important to get the government back in business again.
Shutdowns mean non-emergency employees are furloughed without pay, although they get back pay eventually. Maybe not this time, says Light.
Light: It will save money if you keep them out for a week or two weeks, and that's one way to cut the deficit, albeit by a very small margin.
In Washington, I'm John Dimsdale for Marketplace.
People seem to have a strange idea about "posh" government jobs. Most of us are contractors and will not get pay or back pay in case of a shutdown. We also don't have much job stability, unlike the paradigm. Those who ARE in direct govt jobs just had to take a two-year pay freeze, and generally make significantly less than a contracting counterpart. Sure the benefits are decent and the jobs tend to be more stable than not - but all government jobs are NOT cushy jobs like people seem to think. Individual responsibility in the workplace is what matters. Quit yelling and get to work. :)
No one ever mentions the more than 11,000 seasonal employees who do not have the luxury of furloughs, much less such essentials as health insurance. Yet, without hard working and eternally flexible seasonals, the NPS loses more than half of their employees. Also, why are the NPS/USFS among the first government programs to be canceled under the heading "Non-essential?" We need access to these places! These lands are largely what makes this country desirable, yet we are ultra-willing to cut off access in times of financial strife. Obama's 2012 budget calls for an increase in NPS spending (the NPS is arguably our favorite, least controversial government program) and a decrease in military spending. Surely this plan is more in tune with the feelings of Americans.
I cannot be the only person to find a certain irony in Tuesday's broadcast highlighting a possible federal government shutdown, multi-state union protests and the back pay federal workers have historically received. If only private sector jobs and self employment had such sweet deals.
The current authorization expires Friday, the Republican-led House has passed its version of the continuing resolution, and last I heard the Democrat-controlled Senate was going on vacation instead of taking up the issue. "The problem doesn't exist if I don't admit it" is typical liberal thinking, but even the most out-of-touch progressives don't usually go *this* far ...
:( I hate to say it, but maybe we need to shut the government down to show voters the scope of how much we benefit from the US government.
How I wish the estimated 59% of eligible voters would vote and they knew what a precious gift we have in having a say to who represents us.
Now they are proposing that the 19% discretionary funding be slashed or eliminated? This includes funding for things like the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the EPA, and law enforcement! It feels like we choosing to change our governmental model from ancient Athens to ancient Sparta.
"We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them." ~Albert Einstein
Here's an idea, take all the millions of dollars spent in political advertisements and mudslinging and use that to fix the deficit. I challenge the future political candidates to divert 50% of their campaign financing directly into things that improve the public good or fund the deficit.
