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Shutdown Hits Industries Nationwide (wsj.com)

The partial government shutdown is affecting a wide range of business and financial concerns nationwide. From a report: Shuttered government offices are stalling the approval of new loans, initial public offerings, the processing of tax documents, and the approval of new products such as prescription drugs, among other effects. While some programs are reopening on a temporary basis or providing workarounds for affected companies, most services won't return to normal until the government fully reopens and 800,000 federal workers sift through the backlog.

Here is a round up of the impact: The partial closure of the Securities and Exchange Commission is delaying the ability of companies to open the IPO market. Companies that were seeking to list shares in January are delaying plans since the regulator has stopped reviewing and approving new and pending corporate registration statements. Airlines expect to have sluggish revenue growth in the first quarter in part because of revenue lost from government travel cancellations. Delta Air Lines Inc. Chief Executive Ed Bastian, for instance, said the shutdown would cost his airline $25 million in lost revenue from government travel. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has dramatically curtailed inspections of domestic facilities at food-processing companies during the shutdown, though unpaid inspectors have resumed work inspecting higher-risk products such as fresh fruits and vegetables, eggs, seafood and dairy products.

At the Internal Revenue Service, the shutdown has created delays in getting some employer identification numbers, holding up some routine business deals. Some small-business loans are also stuck in limbo. The Small Business Administration has stopped approving routine loans that the agency backs to ensure entrepreneurs have access to funds, halting their plans for expansion and repairs and forcing some owners to consider costlier sources of cash. The government process for reviewing proposed mergers has been slowed by the shutdown, but it is still operating. Businesses that have government contracts are feeling the strain across a variety of industries, including the building of highways and bridges.

13 of 664 comments (clear)

  1. Trump owns it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    “I am proud to shut down the government for border security, Chuck. I will take the mantle. I will be the one to shut it down. I’m not going to blame you for it.”

    Donald Trump

    1. Re:Trump owns it by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 5, Informative

      Yea, but the cost of opening the government is $5.7 Billion....

      5.7billion now (on top of nearly 2billion already granted in the budget to repair/replace existing border fencing) - and that's just the down payment to get started. Most conservative estimates start at about $20billion to complete the project- some go over $100billion (although that's probably unrealistic). Trump's own widely derided estimate was $7bn to $12bn total.

      Either way- that's not an insignificant chunk of money when you consider our infrastructure is in poor shape compared to much of the rest of the world, our health care is last place out of the industrialised world, we're falling behind in science, etc.

      The preferred designs can be cut through with common household tools or easily traversed with a ladder. Even republicans representatives who live along the border say that it wouldn't be effective. The people who cross the border illegally are fewer than the people who arrive legally and overstay their visa. ... and you know what country most people who arrive and legally overstay their visa come from? CANADA- it's not even Mexico.

      It's absurd to waste $5.7 billion on a downpayment on a much more expensive wall. It's just a really bad idea. It's a vanity project with no merit... let's not waste money on a stupid vanity project please.

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    2. Re:Trump owns it by stealth_finger · · Score: 4, Informative

      Trump offered to give Democrats everything they wanted and, thanks to TDS, they turned down his offer before they had even heard him make it.

      Apart from dropping the 5.7billion demand that mexico isn't paying for to build an ineffectual wall.

      --
      Wanna buy a shirt?
      https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
    3. Re:Trump owns it by PopeRatzo · · Score: 4, Informative

      Out of a $44~ Trillion budget.

      You left out a decimal point. In 2019, the budget will be $4.407 billion. The government will have revenue of $3.4 trillion, leaving a trillion dollar deficit (and growing) during what's supposed to be "the greatest economy in history, just a tremendous economy".

      Who's zooming whom?

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    4. Re:Trump owns it by kenh · · Score: 1, Informative

      Trump also didn't give the Democrats anything near what they wanted. He only promised to kick the DACA can down the road for 3 years, and this after he's trying to cancel the program outright.

      When Trump ended the "created out of whole cloth" DACA program it was hot on the heels of the finding that the related DAPA (Dreamer parent program) was unconstitutional and about a dozen states were lining up to challenge DACA with the same argument, and there was every indication it too would be found unconstitutional. Trump pre-emptively announced an end date, giving Congress time to propose an alternative. Congress failed to do so, and the program expired when Congress failed to come up with an alternative. You may recall the President offered protection to 1.7 million DACA enrollees and future enrollees, but Democrats refused to accept that offer.

      Democrats have been demanding "Comprehensive Immigration Reform" for the past twenty years, using that as an excuse to refuse any incremental improvement to our current immigration policy, yet they never put forth their "Comprehensive Immigration Reform" bill, under either Republican/Democrat administrations.

      --
      Ken
    5. Re: Trump owns it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Multiple Bill's to reopen the government have passed the house. The Senate aren't bringing them to a vote.

  2. TRUMP TRUMP TRUMP! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Informative

    Making America Great Again. Congrats.

  3. Another non-tech article by Vanyle · · Score: 4, Informative

    Why is everything here getting so political? I read about this on every other news feeds, I don't need it here as well.

  4. Re:Schumer Shutdown by PopeRatzo · · Score: 5, Informative

    So far, the Democrats have refused to even consider writing a budget.

    The president is the one who is supposed to submit the budget in the US system. Don't they teach US civics over there?

    There's no way you can blame Trump - he's not the one refusing to make a deal.

    The Democratic House has already passed several bills to reopen the government in the past couple of weeks. The Senate GOP won't even allow a vote on them.

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
  5. "ineffectual" wall by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Israel's wall has been fairly effective:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_West_Bank_barrier#Effectiveness

    No barrier is perfectly effective. People break out of prisons on occasion - that doesn't discount the utility of prisons in general.

    Using "perfection" as an excuse to leave our border unprotected is just stupid. Most people that are anti-wall should just admit they are open borders activists. No amount of border security will make them happy.

    1. Re:"ineffectual" wall by bryanbrunton · · Score: 3, Informative

      No, actually before the US welfare state (that is Social Security and Food Stamps), the elderly starved and died, as did the poor.

      But Trump Traitors like you don't know your history. Shut up with your right wing bullshit.

  6. You should read your own citations sometime by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Israel's wall has been fairly effective:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_West_Bank_barrier#Effectiveness

    No barrier is perfectly effective. People break out of prisons on occasion - that doesn't discount the utility of prisons in general.

    Using "perfection" as an excuse to leave our border unprotected is just stupid. Most people that are anti-wall should just admit they are open borders activists. No amount of border security will make them happy.

    from the article you cited:

    Haaretz reported, "[t]he security fence is no longer mentioned as the major factor in preventing suicide bombings, mainly because the terrorists have found ways to bypass it."[56] Former Israeli Secretary of Defence Moshe Arens says that the reduction in Palestinian violence is largely due to the IDF's entry into the West Bank in 2002.[57]

    Maybe people who are for the wall should admit they haven't studied the issue and attribute false motivations to those who have?

  7. Re:Why doesn't Congress just approve the budget? by Dragonslicer · · Score: 5, Informative

    The House of Representatives already passed a budget (which included something like $1.5 billion for border security) on their first day of the year. The Senate hasn't voted on it because Mitch McConnell, the Senate Majority Leader, has refused to call for a vote on any budget that would be vetoed.