So… like a lot of folks who went to bed before midnight last night, I woke up this morning to find out the government had shut down. The issues that led to this – disagreements over DACA, CHIP & funding for that Godforsaken border wall – do need to be resolved and I’m not mad at Democrats for drawing a line in the sand, but Lawd.Today.
Welp, since this is where we find ourselves AGAIN… here are some basics from CNN on what it all means for you in case you don’t remember how it went down the last time we had a shutdown, back in 2013:
- Mail will still be delivered, Social Security will still deposit checks and food stamps will still be funded. (Thank God for that at least.)*
- You DO have file your taxes on time even though most IRS employees won’t be working… which means your refund could be delayed if they don’t figure this out soon. (For real, tho?)
- You will NOT be able to get a gun permit, go to a national park, museum or monument. Oh, and they’re turning off the panda camera at the National Zoo too. (Dayum, they had to take away the panda too?)
About 850,000 non-essential government employees will be on furlough until they work this mess out… but somehow, Congress and the president who got us into this in the first place will still get their checks. (Hmmpft.)
Oh, and the last government shutdown cost us about $2 BILLION dollars. (That’s just disrespectful. & Y’all need to pay attention to who did what in DC this time around, remember that until November’s elections and vote accordingly.)
(*all parenthetical comments are my honest feelings, minus any cursing I really want to do.)