Does the shutdown or shutdowns generally, affect non employee payments such as social security and medical, veterans benefits, etc?
These people are stupid, but they’re not that stupid. Entitlement programs always remain funded during political budget disputes.
Before 2016 I would have believed that. Now? Hm.
Anyway… Once the government actually shuts down, some weird things can happen. For example, they will rope off public parks and monuments on the logic that these areas are now closed, even when they don’t actually require a staff to run them. Various government run museums such as the National Archives shut down.
In 2013, 800,000 government employees stopped showing up to work, while another 1.3 million continued to work with the expectation that they would be paid back. Whether any individual comes to work or not depends on the nature of their job. (For example, the military never stops working even if their pay is in arrears)
Since the Small Buisiness Administration is government-sponsored, small buisinesses that relies on them for credit had to turn to loan sharks or banks that offered less favorable interest rates.
Commercial imports and exports were delayed or stopped entirely when federal inspectors were furloughed, which of course damages those businesses.
Indian Tribes basically get screwed because many of the reservations are impoverished and rely on the Federal government to fund welfare, medical, and law enforcement.
Some government employees who were on business travel are expected to immediately return. This, of course, means they incur the price of buying a last minute ticket and then the agency has to decide whether to resume the travel once the government opens again. This is the kind of thing that actually makes a shutdown MORE expensive than if it hadn’t taken place at all.
These are just a couple of examples of the sometimes unexpected second and third order effects that take place during a shutdown. It’s not just that employees don’t show up to work. It can have some unexpected effects on people you don’t normally think about being connected to the federal government. Since this shutdown will only effect certain parts of the government, it will not be as bad as the 2013 shutdown. But given the individual involved it might be longer.
It being a major revenue generator for the state, Grand Canyon NP will be kept open by Arizona regardless of what the Feds do. I’m not sure it’s much more than keeping the gates open as almost everything you can buy inside the park is through the concessionaires anyway.
North Rim is already closed for the winter.
As I mentioned, at both Sequoia and Yosemite there was nobody at the entrances to take fees, so they’re not generating any fees in that reagard. I suppose they left them open because people had plans, and really, most of the parks can be used for at least a while without requiring rangers. As you say, it brings in tourist money in other ways.
SS is basically self-funded, so it will still pay out benefits;VA hospitals will be open (don’t know about offices); post office also will be open
We have provisional funded jobs at my University. Applicants are told when they apply for the position.
They are sometimes fully Federally funded or sometimes split between Fed & State funds.
A research lab for example might be funded through a grant. The grant allows for predetermined staffing. They are provisional positions and are handled that way by HR.
These positions are often hit hard by budget shutdowns or if the grant’s funding isn’t renewed.