For many people, the annual spectacle of a possible federal government shutdown in the face of chronic budget disagreements in Congress has become normalized.
But a normalization of political dysfunction in Washington is unacceptable because the main victims are the most vulnerable among us: If the federal government is paralyzed from the first minute of October, around 6.7 million beneficiaries of the WIC program – we are talking about mainly pregnant women and children from low-income families – will be left almost immediately without access to federal support.
“The vast majority of WIC participants would see an immediate reduction and elimination of those benefits, meaning the nutrition assistance being provided would not be available,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack warned this week.
But that is not all. Another 40 million people from low-income households who receive food stamps through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) could stop receiving them starting in November, since they are part of the Farm Law, whose renewal is also at risk.
Hundreds of thousands of farmers and ranchers will also stop receiving support or loans. Millions of federal workers in non-essential positions will not receive pay for the duration of the federal government shutdown, nor will critical personnel like air traffic controllers and emergency services, the latter who must work without pay.
And when you take into account that six in 10 federal workers are working for agencies like the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs, a shutdown also has national security implications.
A federal government shutdown also has the potential to affect the travel plans of hundreds of thousands of people, as the issuance of passports or visas will be suspended due to the closure of the State Department’s foreign offices.
For the US economy, a government shutdown could represent a reduction in economic growth of at least 0.2% a week, according to estimates by the Goldman Sachs brokerage, although it would be a temporary setback.
Simply put, a government shutdown would have enormous consequences, many of them unpredictable. And all because a handful of Republican lawmakers have taken America’s budget and credibility hostage to a conservative agenda.
President Biden was right when he appealed to the American public to stop voting for those conservative politicians who are willing to let the government shut down. “Funding the government is one of the most basic and fundamental responsibilities of Congress and if Republicans in the House don’t start doing their job, we should stop electing them.”
