As many are aware, the government had a record breaking shutdown of forty-three days. This shutdown began on October 1st and ended on November 13th. The U.S. Senate passed an agreement on November 10th, and on November 12th, the House voted 222-209 to end the shutdown. President Trump signed the bill at 10:24pm EST and the shutdown finally ended.
“The government shutdown was continuing a lot longer than people had expected. There were concerns around the economy, about flights potentially being canceled and having a wider impact to the economy,” stated Chris Zaccarelli, Northlight Asset Management’s chief investment officer.
The shutdown had such an economical impact on all states, but here is the economical impact on Massachusetts due to the shutdown:
-There’s been an increase in unemployment: About 1,000 workers.
-SNAP benefit recipients impacted after 30 days: 1,076,000 total; 418,000 who are children.
-Gross state product impact: decline of $407 million per week
-Around 45,000 federal employees have been working without pay or have been put on a leave of absence.
-The Federal contract spending cut is around $518 million dollars.
-SBA loan delays are around $58 million in distributions.
-Declined consumer spending due to the lost wages is around $686 million per month.
-Plus many more impacts the shutdown has caused.
As you can see, the shutdown had such detrimental effects on America because these are only Massachusetts statistics from the shutdown. The shutdown has had ramifications on other states too.
The entire shutdown could’ve been prevented through a bipartisan agreement on spending legislation, either full-term or a short-term resolvement.
Lieutenant-Governors from multiple states stated that, “holding the federal government funding hostage is not just a Washington D.C. debate for political points, It has real and immediate consequences in every state across America that cannot be overlooked. From impacting pay for our troops, first responders, and firefighters to affecting critical services for seniors and veterans and disrupting food assistance for families in need, a government shutdown would inflict severe consequences on the American people that are completely avoidable.”
Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, the chamber’s No. 2 Democrat said, “I wish we could do more. The government shutting down seemed to be an opportunity to lead us to better policy. It didn’t work.”
