Subscribe to Receive the Daily Report

Sunday, January 13th, 2019

Shutdown’s economic damage: $1 billion a week

Author:     VICTORIA GUIDA
Source:     Politico
Publication Date:     01/09/2019 06:33 PM EST
 Link: Shutdown’s economic damage: $1 billion a week
Stephan:   I got an email from a reader in New Zealand today asking was the United States a country or a reality TV show? I couldn't answer because I didn't know. In talking with people I get the sense most don't realize that if the Republican Senate had any sense of ethics or Constitutional responsibility, they would simply take their jobs seriously and override any Trump veto, and let people get back to work.  Instead, we have this.

The shutdown – now in its 19th day — could also cost the U.S. government more than a billion dollars in lost productivity for 350,000 workers who are forced to stay home.
Credit: Alex Wong/Getty

As federal workers face the prospect of missed paychecks during the partial government shutdown, their financial reality is rippling into the broader economy.

The roughly 800,000 government employees who are either furloughed or working without pay will be forced to start slashing their consumer spending when paychecks don’t appear this week. Private-sector contractors and other workers tied to the government are already seeing damage from lost business.

And a hit to the nation’s financial standing is on the horizon with a warning from Fitch Ratings on Wednesday about downgrading the government’s credit rating if the shutdown persists.

Estimates from President Donald Trump’s chief economist peg the cost to the overall U.S. economy at about $1.2 billion for each week the shutdown persists. While that’s just 0.05 percentage points off the GDP growth rate, it could be among the factors […]

Read the Full Article