Government Shutdown 2013 History: What Happens Midnight

The government shutdown in 2013 has a long history, but what happens midnight on the date of October 1, 2013?

As previously reported by The Inquisitr, government furloughs for the 2013 government shutdown will begin midnight if Congress doesn’t pass a bill by the end of the day. Fortunately, this amounts to less than one-fourth of the government’s 3.3 million workforce, which is about one percent of the US population.

A little government shutdown history might shed some light on why things have gotten this bad. Based upon the US Constitution any spending bills must originate in the House of Representatives. Both the House and the Senate have to come to a middle ground agreement. But so far the Senate hasn’t given any ground and the standard budget reconciliation process has stalled out. The first House bill to pass defunded Obamacare entirely so the Senate stripped that portion back and offered to push the 2013 government shutdown back until November 15 without offering any long-term solutions.

The last attempt by the House of Representatives on Sunday morning was to pass an Obamacare delay bill that got rid of the medical device tax, reset the debt ceiling until December 15, and would have delayed Obamacare for another year. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid axed the Obamacare delay bill without allowing any debate, which resembles the history of many spending bills in the Senate.

In fact, the Senate hasn’t passed a spending bill or an appropriations bill any type in over three years. It’s Congressional gridlock like this that led Bill O’Reilly to say Harry Reid should be tied to a tree in order to avoid the 2013 government shutdown.

The reason Republicans are making the Affordable Care Act the center of their arguments is because the Obamacare price has grown from $850 billion to almost $2 trillion just in the last several years, which would account for nearly 9.5 percent of the $3.5 trillion of annual Federal spending. Republicans believe we can’t afford it’s cost or the Obamacare fines. Democrats believe taxes should be increased to compensate for government spending levels.

But why are we even facing a government shutdown in 2013? Government debt has reached almost $17 trillion and Social Security disability benefits funds are estimated to run out of money by 2016. Congress failed to solve the Federal deficit problems and the backup plan, the automatic sequester, only slowed the increase in government spending. Combined with 2013 tax increases, the Federal deficit, or how much Congress is overspending per year, went down from over $1 trillion to an estimated $850 to $950 billion this year (we still have a month before the United States budget year ends). But the effect of a two-week government shutdown on 4th quarter GDP growth would be 0.3 percentage points, which would slow tax revenue and potentially push the Federal deficit spending back over $1 trillion. You’d think the Federal government shutdown might save some money, but interestingly enough the 1996 and 1995 government shutdown cost about $2 billion when adjusted for inflation.

For a detailed list of what happens during a government shutdown go check out our previous article on the subject. The ironic part is that a 2013 government shutdown won’t affect Obamacare one bit since the IRS and state governments will stay open. Congress will also stay open (some of our representatives have promised to give up their salaries during this time) and so will the White House, Social Security, NSA, and extremely important Federal services. Military personnel will have paychecks delayed and the postal service is technically separate. Otherwise, the NIH, EPA, and other agencies like NASA will be sending their employees home without pay.

If a 2013 government shutdown is what happens, how do you think Congress should solve the Federal debt ceiling crisis?