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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.
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.
“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
FDA, Air Traffic Control, Parks Service, etc are all needed. But yet the media chooses to harp on the plight of the poor TSA smurfs. You know, the people who say "papers please" before you're boarding a flight in your own country and make you pass through a nudie-scanner or get your crotch groped by them. Yeah, yeah, they're "just doing their jobs." Guess what? If no one was willing to do the job, the job wouldn't be so obnoxious.
Keep everything else, but if TSA were all fired (but we kept real security measures like armed crew, air marshals, reinforced/locked flight deck doors, and a policy of non-cooperation with hijackers), and replaced with private security, it would be a net gain for freedom in the USA.
As it is, the TSA was mostly created as corporate welfare for airlines. It took security out of their hands, thus washed their hands of liability. Strict ID checks also make re-sale of tickets more difficult, thus protect airlines' revenue stream from change fees.
say we make it permanent and fire all furloughed workers. We might actually be able to balance the budge,
All government salaries combined account for around $200 billion. We could literally fire every single federal employee and we still wouldn't have even covered half the federal deficit ($779 billion last year).
Who's with me on this....
Nobody with a brain in their skull.
The president is the one who is supposed to submit the budget in the US system. Don't they teach US civics over there?
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.
Meanwhile, in civilised countries, if a budget approval isn't given, the previous authorised budget is automatically continued until such time as a new budget is approved.
Nobody goes unpaid.
Government doesn't get shutdown.
Nobody has to implement emergency measures.
Everything carries on as it did before until someone can get changes approved and sign off on the new budget.
At no point does anything go any more unfunded/underfunded than it already was before the new budget was proposed.
It's almost like those other countries spotted what a stupid idea "shut down the government", including using it as blackmail, was many, many, many centuries ago and worked around it.
This right here is the problem with modern politics. People like you have given no real thought to what life was actually like 100+ years ago, and sit and criticize the foundations of the very institution that allows you to be a complacent armchair critic in the first place.
Without government, there's a good chance you wouldn't be literate.
Without government, we wouldn't have had the research dollars (or more importantly) the free speech protections that enable science and ultimately lead to things like the computer and network infrastructure that you are using to bitch and moan.
Without government, you would stand a very good chance of not being here in the first place, thanks to childhood mortality prior to sanitation mandates, food inspection, food stamps and vaccination requirements lowering childhood mortality from 300/1000 in the early 1900's to less than 1/1000 today.
Without government, there would be nothing to keep anybody who wanted to from taking all of your possessions, or enslaving you, or just killing you for entertainment.
Without government, companies can and will put things like radium in your beverage, they will put workers in harm's way to save a few bucks, and they will keep you busy 16 hours a day, 7 days a week so you don't have time to post ignorant rants on the internet in the first place.
Life was brutal and short prior to effective government. There are still plenty of places today that are governed weakly or not at all, and childhood mortality remains extremely high in these places.
The problem is, making big changes to life requires years or even generations - you don't build up an economy in a month, and you don't destroy it in a month. You don't produce a vibrant scientific community, or a skilled workforce, or a powerful military, or an innovative tech sector without serious patience and investment. But people like you swallow the GOP's bullshit line that "government IS the problem" without giving a moment's thought to the real sources of prosperity - those being stability, knowledge, trade, and liberty.
If you want to live in a place without a powerful, liberal government, go ahead - even in this day and age, there are plenty of countries like that available. But don't sabotage mine because you're too shortsighted to understand where your comfortable life comes from.
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?
Actually, the house did pass a budget, as soon as the new congress started. It was the same budget the senate passed a few weeks ago. Right now Mitch McConnell refuses to bring it up for a vote because the president is wonâ(TM)t sign it.
Should be noted that the bill mentioned passed UNANIMOUSLY. 100 for, 0 against, 0 abstaining. So even if the handful of new senators all vote against, the bill would have veto-proof majority.
The Senate should pass the bill like it did a month ago and send it to the President. If he vetoes it, they could easily have the votes to override the veto.
But that would make the GOP look bad, so that's not an option for McConnell.
=Smidge=
This argument always makes me chuckle. Yes, let's make America as peaceful as the middle-east by duplicating the stupid decisions they make over there.
Once upon a time, the US allowed unlimited immigration, and the country prospered.
"Us" and "Them" are political constructs designed to divide and conquer.
I would never choose to reside in the apartheid hell that Israel has become, and if that abomination becomes a reality in the US, I will be leaving.
Trump then also proposed a compromise,
It's not a compromise if he gets everything he wants, and especially not if the only thing he's giving back is the hostages.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
I know that sounds harsh, so here's somebody way more articulate than I am to explain why the verbiage is appropriate.
Trump & the GOP are testing us. This isn't about the wall, this about ruling by fiat by continuously threatening the security and stability of the United States. We can't let that stand. If we do we become a defacto dictatorship.
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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.
Trump then also proposed a compromise
Trump "compromised" by promising to not do what court orders forbid him to do. Can't deport the DACA kids when courts have already told him he can't deport the DACA kids.
I hereby compromise with you. I will not burn down your house. In return, I want $5.7 million dollars. Good deal, right?