I am not from the USA, so to me this seems like the most strange thing ever. How does the government of the most powerful country just shut down?
As expected, Reddit has answers: http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1n8saz/eli5_whats_happening_with_this_potential/
I'm kind of interested in what kind of ripple/butterfly effect this could have. At the top, people will be working appropriately to keep things in order as much as possible, but when jobs are at risk, families are at risk... and it eventually filters down to potential deaths. Naturally, nobody responsible looks at the situation from that level.
It's mostly political wheeling and dealing, the politicians will compromise before critical services like transit are shutdown.
From what I've read, the following might/will happen now: Taxpayers are going to have to pay for politicians to do absolutely nothing The US GDP is going to be negatively affected if this carries on for more than a few days Some people are going to not be paid for their jobs, so they may see that as a excuse for not showing up to work in the first place Some people will be forced to take a break from their jobs (furloughed) - jobs which they do care about and which they devouted their studies to qualify for If noone is making shots, then the debt ceiling may not be raised in time. This could potentially cause another recession No one in the USA will have their internet spied on (lucky) National museums, parks and other places will be shut down And that is just a small bit of it. All because some Republicans don't like a policy from the Democrats going through, the entire worlds economy could become seriously messed up...this is all worst case scenario though *sigh* You Americans and your politcians
A shutdown occurred with Clinton in the 90s, it won't kill anyone. A serious effort to repeal or derail this piece of crap legislation should've been made years ago. Nobody likes the individual mandate and the law was rammed through with a great deal of controversy and dissent, or "passed to find out what's in it" to quote one of the thousands of village idiots in DC. We need term limits yesterday.
Basically this is the republican's Godzilla threshold. They see no other way to kill the act. So they are going all the way, literally as far and extreme as possible in a legal sense.
It won't really effect anything unless it goes for more than 48 hours, congress is not allowing Obama to pass the new Obama care therefore they couldn't come to terms. Eventually escalating into a full Government shutdown. That being said, I hope they can come to terms soon! I don't want that crap passed lol.
In America, politicians shut down Government. In Russia, Government shuts down politicians. Which would you prefer?
The UK and our National Health Service. @Hoggy: I wouldn't be surprised if the NSA was considered essential.
I know it's not critical but they shut down the national parks and forests. Seems like the ones losing out the most are the people, like usual. I know I'm complaining about something minor compared to the folks that won't be getting their pay checks anymore
Honestly, screw the Republicans. They're the minority in this country, and the only way they manage to get 'wins' is with deception and stunts like this. They think that doing this will make the populace repeal Obamacare? I don't think so. It's going to just make the non-Republican populace hate the Republicans even more, and maybe lead to some more conservatives to turn their backs on the party (it happened last election XD). They're a dying breed, and I can't wait until they disappear completely (when they do, you'll probably hear less stupid shit come out of politician's mouths- because when you do, chances are high that they're Republican. That's not to say all of them are dumb. Some are actually fairly smart. Some). As long as rural dwellers exist though, I don't see republicans disappearing...
Do you not read the news, or have you forgotten that they took decisive control of the House and regained a good deal of the Senate in the last few elections? Coupled with the recent recall in Colorado where two Dems in solidly liberal towns were kicked out of office? Lost the presidency in '08 due to a laughably embarrassing candidate, '12 was close but Romney petered out towards the end after his excellent first debate. I'm no fan of some of their recent antics (particularly Graham and McCain's on Syria) but you couldn't be futher from the truth. Lib support comes mostly from the big cities; go out into the suburbs and rural towns and it's an entirely different story. Just the fact that Obama was unable to ram through his agenda on gun control speaks volumes.
They're most popular with older people (50+). Younger people are generally more liberal. When the old conservative people die, liberal people aren't going to suddenly turn conservative. Hence, dying breed. They've shown a decline in popularity among the populace- regardless of whether they have more seats in the house and a good amount in the senate. Part of that is because republicans are far more spread out than democrats, but their numbers are significantly lower.
