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Old April 8th, 2011 #17
SmokyMtn
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Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: East Tennessee
Posts: 8,506
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Thirty percent of all home mortgages are backed by federal agencies that will be shutting down. This is the peak home buying season.

This is a bigger deal then back in 1995-1996. Back then, the economy was in better shape, and could easily take, what was it, a 30 day shut down back then?

The fight over the 2011 budget is not the only issue that will cause a partial government shutdown, there is also the debt ceiling that needs to be raised by the end of the month.

Fiscal year 2011 is half over and the Democrats and Republicans have yet to agree on a budget. They should be working on the budget for the 2012 fiscal year.

Many of you here have this illusion that the federal government shutting down will be just a minor inconvenience, forgetting how much of our economy right now is dependant on federal government spending.

Not only will there be 800,000 federal employees be furloughed, have anyone of you considered the hundreds of thousands of employees of federal contractors that will be told to stay home also? Also, those federal government employees who will be required to stay on, will do so with paychecks until a budget agreement passes.

This problem is not going to go away. What we have here is a battle between the newly elected Tea Party Republicans holding on the best that they can the promises that they made to their constituents and the establishment politicians wanting to hold onto their favorite programs. There is a very good chance that there will be a shutdown because both sides are calling each other's bluff, and neither side wants to be seen as giving in.

The state of Illinois is six months behind in making payments to their vendors. It can least afford a partial shutdown. In another article, it was reported that 40% of the State of Michigan's revenues comes from the federal government.

Another thing to consider is the tens of thousands of private companies that rely on federal contracts (even if they are paid through the state or local governments, the funds come from the federal level), for everything from road building to IT.