Question about Goverment shutdown.

[tloonya]

Hi!
I wasnt really paying attention to gov shutdown because I had believed they will manage somehow to resolve the issue.
However my WIC customers are coming with wide opened eyes because they had appointments switched to December so it means they are going to have to manage without WIC food in November.
I had called and been told that WIC has 2 weeks funds available and if goverment will still be shut down some programs will be closed.
To my understanding when goverment was in better shape -they had created and funded all sorts of bogus programs that have to be shut down, however WIC seems to me like well created and somewhat nessesary program that is feeding pregnant and kids so I suppose it will be shut down last.
But I do know know much about politics and if you can help me to understand this shutdown I will be much more educated person. Whatever I read online or in the paper - hard to digest.
Thanks

[Angel!]

Basically, a bill needs to be passed by congress that funds certain areas of govt.  WIC is one of those things that needs to be funded.  Congress hasn't done this, so there is no more money being sent to the states for WIC. 

Congress can't come to an agreement because one side is only willing to fund the govt if they can also kill Obamacare at the same time.  The other side refuses to kill Obamacare.  So they are in a standoff.  Until they come to an agreement no more money goes out for many different areas of govt.

It gets worse because in the next 2 weeks they also have to raise our borrowing limt or there won't be enough money to pay the bills.  That would be really bad.  That will make some people getting furloughed and others not getting WIC look like child's play.

Hopefully that is a somewhat easy to understand explaination for you.

[tloonya]

Oct 4, 2013 11:19:03 GMT -5 Angel! said:

Basically, a bill needs to be passed by congress that funds certain areas of govt.  WIC is one of those things that needs to be funded.  Congress hasn't done this, so there is no more money being sent to the states for WIC. 

Congress can't come to an agreement because one side is only willing to fund the govt if they can also kill Obamacare at the same time.  The other side refuses to kill Obamacare.  So they are in a standoff.  Until they come to an agreement no more money goes out for many different areas of govt.

It gets worse because in the next 2 weeks they also have to raise our (WHO'S?) borrowing limt or there won't be enough money to pay the bills (WHAT BILLS?).  That would be really bad.  That will make some people getting furloughed (gotta google) and others not getting WIC look like child's play.

Hopefully that is a somewhat easy to understand explaination for you.

Thanks. But when are we going to know?

[justme]

The nation's borrowing limit.

Bills - like interest payments on all the other debt we've already borrowed, and all the other costs it takes to run the country.

[Angel!]

Who - The US's borrowing limit.  In really simple terms we have maxed out our credit and congress has to approve a credit increase or we can't borrow any more money.  We are running the govt in the red, so we need to keep borrowing to pay all the bills.

What bills - Everything the US govt spends money towards - Social security, Medicare, Defense, Interest Payments on our Debt, WIC, etc.  If they don't raise our credit limit then the treasury has to start picking and choosing who gets paid because they won't have enough to pay everything.

Furlough - Unpaid time off.  The same way the govt isn't sending out money to fund WIC anymore, they also aren't paying for around 800,000 employees to go to work.  These folks are sitting at home not getting paid until this is resolved.  They may get back pay when it is over though.  At which point they basically received a paid vacation.

We are supposed to hit the debt ceiling October 17th.  If things don't get resolved by then, it could be very bad. 

[Opti]

I'm wondering if Medicare and SS don't need bills to fund it because it deducted from our paychecks separately, i.e. not part of the federal income tax which does need bills to appropriate the funds each year.

[tloonya]

Oct 4, 2013 12:01:39 GMT -5 Angel! said:

Who - The US's borrowing limit.  In really simple terms we have maxed out our credit and congress has to approve a credit increase or we can't borrow any more money.  We are running the govt in the red, so we need to keep borrowing to pay all the bills.

What bills - Everything the US govt spends money towards - Social security, Medicare, Defense, Interest Payments on our Debt, WIC, etc.  If they don't raise our credit limit then the treasury has to start picking and choosing who gets paid because they won't have enough to pay everything.

Furlough - Unpaid time off.  The same way the govt isn't sending out money to fund WIC anymore, they also aren't paying for around 800,000 employees to go to work.  These folks are sitting at home not getting paid until this is resolved.  They may get back pay when it is over though.  At which point they basically received a paid vacation.

We are supposed to hit the debt ceiling October 17th.  If things don't get resolved by then, it could be very bad. 

How bad? What could happened to us? OMG!!!!

[tloonya]

Oct 4, 2013 12:06:28 GMT -5 Opti said:

I'm wondering if Medicare and SS don't need bills to fund it because it deducted from our paychecks separately, i.e. not part of the federal income tax which does need bills to appropriate the funds each year.



Yeah, right? I hope pumkin you right...

[wvugurl26]

Oct 4, 2013 12:06:28 GMT -5 Opti said:

I'm wondering if Medicare and SS don't need bills to fund it because it deducted from our paychecks separately, i.e. not part of the federal income tax which does need bills to appropriate the funds each year.

Those have their own trust funds that pay out. The money deducted from our checks goes to those trust funds.

[Angel!]

Oct 5, 2013 6:56:04 GMT -5 tloonya said:

Oct 4, 2013 12:01:39 GMT -5 Angel! said:

Who - The US's borrowing limit.  In really simple terms we have maxed out our credit and congress has to approve a credit increase or we can't borrow any more money.  We are running the govt in the red, so we need to keep borrowing to pay all the bills.

What bills - Everything the US govt spends money towards - Social security, Medicare, Defense, Interest Payments on our Debt, WIC, etc.  If they don't raise our credit limit then the treasury has to start picking and choosing who gets paid because they won't have enough to pay everything.

Furlough - Unpaid time off.  The same way the govt isn't sending out money to fund WIC anymore, they also aren't paying for around 800,000 employees to go to work.  These folks are sitting at home not getting paid until this is resolved.  They may get back pay when it is over though.  At which point they basically received a paid vacation.

We are supposed to hit the debt ceiling October 17th.  If things don't get resolved by then, it could be very bad. 

How bad? What could happened to us? OMG!!!!

Honestly I really don't know. It has never happened before. The us credit rating would drop because we can't pay our bills. Interest rates for the govt would shoot up, not sure how that would affect other interest rates. The stock market would start to crash. And some people wouldn't be getting money they rely on. Those 800,000 would continue to be in furlough. But others would be at risk of not getting paid also since the govt would have to start picking and choosing who to pay. They would likely try to keep up on interest, active military, and social security. But that could still leave massive programs unfunded like medicare, medicaid, food stamps, va, and so on. Things like that not getting paid would start a ripple effect and we would fall back into another recession.

It probably won't happen because congress knows the consequences and no one wants it to happen. But it won't stop them from making this a big game of chicken.

[tloonya]

Oct 5, 2013 9:29:23 GMT -5 Angel! said:

Oct 5, 2013 6:56:04 GMT -5 tloonya said:

How bad? What could happened to us? OMG!!!!

Honestly I really don't know. It has never happened before. The us credit rating would drop because we can't pay our bills. Interest rates for the govt would shoot up, not sure how that would affect other interest rates. The stock market would start to crash. And some people wouldn't be getting money they rely on. Those 800,000 would continue to be in furlough. But others would be at risk of not getting paid also since the govt would have to start picking and choosing who to pay. They would likely try to keep up on interest, active military, and social security. But that could still leave massive programs unfunded like medicare, medicaid, food stamps, va, and so on. Things like that not getting paid would start a ripple effect and we would fall back into another recession.

It probably won't happen because congress knows the consequences and no one wants it to happen. But it won't stop them from making this a big game of chicken.

So these are really political games? And that is why its called that, right? political GAMES!
I do see that goverment does funds a lot of crazy unnessesary things, maybe this is why its out of funds. I think there must had come time when they needed to be forced to revise. Hopefully with little blood as possible.

[Angel!]

Yep, it is pretty much all a big game that screws the rest of us.

[tloonya]

Oct 5, 2013 10:05:26 GMT -5 Angel! said:

Yep, it is pretty much all a big game that screws the rest of us.

What does it maqke us to be? Puppets?
Don't we have a say in it at all?

[Deleted]

Yes, fire your Senate & House representatives if they are the ones stonewalling ACA and keeping things shut down.

Might be harsh on a lot of people, but I'd rather the Dems refuse to blink on this one.  This kind of bad behavior can't be condoned or allowed to 'win their way'.  They have attempted 42 prior times to kill ACA and have not succeeded.  Now they have to make a massive grandstand to get it killed because no one else agrees.  I hope they all LOSE their jobs and have to suffer what they are putting others through.  I hope every member of Congress has an enforced stay in poverty without benefits.


PS Loonya.  Do not offer credit to your customers.  Pretty sure this is the end of civilization as we know it 

[dannylion]

Oct 5, 2013 13:59:14 GMT -5 tloonya said:

Oct 5, 2013 10:05:26 GMT -5 Angel! said:

Yep, it is pretty much all a big game that screws the rest of us.

What does it maqke us to be? Puppets?
Don't we have a say in it at all?

You have a say if you vote.  Otherwise, not so much.

[Sum Dum Gai]

You might have a say. Depends on how gerrymandered your house districts are. The maps were recently redrawn and quite a few districts lean so far one way or the other that it doesn't really matter what the rep does.