Government Shutdown

[robkelk]

Getting back on-topic...

Global Government Forum: An uncertain take-off: why US officials are reaching for the parachutes

Global Government Forum is based in the UK. This article provides some history about federal spending EDIT: in the USA (going back to the Antebellum days) and a reality check about the recent shutdown.

The US Coast Guard published resources for its furloughed employees suggesting that they hold garage sales, serve as "mystery shoppers", or even turn to bankruptcy as "a last option". A record 35,000 federal workers filed for unemployment benefits in January. Meanwhile, others turned to food banks and crowdfunding sites such as GoFundMe.

Congress's back pay promise doesn't cover some of the federal government's lowest-paid staff.

"Government jobs at the higher levels - like attorneys and judges - are not the most highly paid in the field," Dana Marx Lee, an immigration judge and President Emeritus of the National Association of Immigration Judges, told Government Global Forum. "Usually, the trade-off that people talk about is, well, you have increased security and predictability about your job. This just blows that argument out of the water, right? That can be very damaging long-term."