The Costs of the Government Shutdown
By Shushannah Walshe
Oct 17, 2013 12:23am
The 16-day government shutdown is over, but the country has taken at least a $24 billion hit along the way.
The financial ratings agency Standard & Poor’s said Wednesday the shutdown “to date has taken $24 billion out of the economy,” equaling $1.5 billion dollars a day and “shaved at least 0.6 percent off annualized fourth-quarter 2013 GDP growth.”
These estimates are for the overall economy, taking into account not just federal wages and productivity, but all the ripple effects and costs as well.
And that’s not all. Here’s ABC’s look at the costs of the shutdown:
- $3.1 billion in lost government services. Although furloughed workers will get their back pay, taxpayers won’t see the products. (Source: I.H.S.)
- According to the U.S. Travel Association: There has been $152 million per day in all spending related to travel lost because of the shutdown. As many as 450,000 American workers supported by travel may be affected.
- According to the National Park Service: They welcome more than 700,000 people per day usually in October and visitors spend an estimated $32 million per day impact in communities near national parks and contribute $76 million each day to the national economy. Those revenues were lost.
- According to Destination D.C., the official tourism corporation of D.C.: There is a 9 percent decrease in hotel occupancy from the last week in September before the shutdown to the first week of October during the shutdown. This year, hotel occupancy was down 74.4 percent for the week Sept. 29 to Oct. 5 compared to the 2012 numbers. (Source: Smith Travel Research, Inc.) In 2012, an estimated $6.2 billion of visitor spending supported more than 75,300 jobs.
The hit to Washington, D.C. has been especially hard, according to Mayor Vince Gray’s office:
•Regional (D.C./Maryland/Virginia) impact: $217 million a day (17.6 percent of the region’s economy) from lost/deferred federal and contractor wages.
•Washington, D.C. economic activity impact: $44 million a week decrease
•Washington, D.C. tax revenue impact: $6 million a week decrease
•Hospitality sector observations: 7 percent decrease in restaurant traffic in the first week in October compared to 2012 and 13,000 fewer hotel bookings (8.3 percent decrease) and $2 million less room revenue in the first week in October compared to 2012.
And we will end with one bit of good news:
There was a 3 percent increase in restaurant beverage (primarily liquor) sales during the first week of October 2013 compared to the first week of September of this year.
These estimates are for the overall economy, taking into account not just federal wages and productivity, but all the ripple effects and costs as well.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. government shutdown saga continues on Capitol Hill today, but for the 800,000 federal workers sent home without pay there appears to be a light at the end of the tunnel.
Today, the House of Representatives passed legislation that, if cleared by the Senate, would assure those employees would receive their back pay when the government reopens.
- According to Destination D.C., the official tourism corporation of D.C.: There is a 9 percent decrease in hotel occupancy from the last week in September before the shutdown to the first week of October during the shutdown. This year, hotel occupancy was down 74.4 percent for the week Sept. 29 to Oct. 5 compared to the 2012 numbers. (Source: Smith Travel Research, Inc.) In 2012, an estimated $6.2 billion of visitor spending supported more than 75,300 jobs.
hypocritexposer said:These estimates are for the overall economy, taking into account not just federal wages and productivity, but all the ripple effects and costs as well.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. government shutdown saga continues on Capitol Hill today, but for the 800,000 federal workers sent home without pay there appears to be a light at the end of the tunnel.
Today, the House of Representatives passed legislation that, if cleared by the Senate, would assure those employees would receive their back pay when the government reopens.
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2013/10/shutdown-continues-but-furloughed-workers-will-likely-be-paid/
Want to revise your numbers at all, OT? :lol:
Oldtimer said:equaling $1.5 billion dollars a day and “shaved at least 0.6 percent off annualized
The hit to Washington, D.C. has been especially hard, according to Mayor Vince Gray’s office:
•Regional (D.C./Maryland/Virginia) impact: $217 million a day (17.6 percent of the region’s economy) from lost/deferred federal and contractor wages.
Oldtimer said:NOPE- pay for nonproductivity and lost services still means the taxpayers got screwed by that amount...
hypocritexposer said:Oldtimer said:NOPE- pay for nonproductivity and lost services still means the taxpayers got screwed by that amount...
maybe you can explain what the government produces and how the loss of services resulted in a $24B loss for the taxpayer?
go ahead, have one of these discussions, without the namecalling you are always mentioning
Oldtimer said:hypocritexposer said:Oldtimer said:NOPE- pay for nonproductivity and lost services still means the taxpayers got screwed by that amount...
maybe you can explain what the government produces and how the loss of services resulted in a $24B loss for the taxpayer?
go ahead, have one of these discussions, without the namecalling you are always mentioning
We paid for a service we did not get... Those projects still need to be done/services still need to be performed- so will take approximately the same amount more of time to do them.. To me that is "losing money"...
You have a fence job that will take X amount of days...I can't see you hiring someone - and then paying them a good wage to stay home for several weeks before they have to go to work on the fence and spend the same X amount of days to complete the job.... You just lost a lot of bucks and wouldn't stay in business long that way...
hypocritexposer said:Oldtimer said:hypocritexposer said:maybe you can explain what the government produces and how the loss of services resulted in a $24B loss for the taxpayer?
go ahead, have one of these discussions, without the namecalling you are always mentioning
We paid for a service we did not get... Those projects still need to be done/services still need to be performed- so will take approximately the same amount more of time to do them.. To me that is "losing money"...
You have a fence job that will take X amount of days...I can't see you hiring someone - and then paying them a good wage to stay home for several weeks before they have to go to work on the fence and spend the same X amount of days to complete the job.... You just lost a lot of bucks and wouldn't stay in business long that way...
so using your example...did you lose what you paid for the job to be done, or the amount of grass that could be fed on that newly fenced area, for those "several weeks"?
Couple of unknowns there too, eh? What acerage was being fenced off? How many years is it going to take to pay for the fencing? How many cattle, will the newly fenced off area hold? What is the average daily weight gain on grass, of the group of cattle you would have placed on that newly fenced area, for the several weeks?
Was the government paying for your fencing? What did the producer lose? What did the taxpayer lose, by not have to pay interest for those several weeks?
Oldtimer said:BULLPUCKEY-- If you were paying $80 an hour- and the fence would take 10 8 hour working days to complete your cost would be $6400 BUT if you gave them 10 8 hour working days paid leave too for government shutdown -- your cost is now $12,800... Then if you want to play your games- I guess you could throw in several thousand $ for hay that needed to be fed to those cows you couldn't get into that pasture- etc., etc...
Many of these folks like ASCS workers and BLM workers had appointments lined up to go over leases, grants, seeding plans, etc..- and when the government closed they had to cancel those appointments... Besides inconveniencing the farmer, the government employees got paid for not doing anything-- BUT still had to come back and reschedule these appointments and do them... That time needs to be made up somewhere- so is usually done in lost services to the taxpayer....
“The White House estimates it cost $2 billion to provide back pay to federal employees ‘for services that could not be performed’ during the shutdown, is roughly $2.0 billion.”
Mike said:The figure by the OMB was $2 - $2.4 Billion.
As usual Fatsquatch is lying.................
“The White House estimates it cost $2 billion to provide back pay to federal employees ‘for services that could not be performed’ during the shutdown, is roughly $2.0 billion.”
hypocritexposer said:Mike said:The figure by the OMB was $2 - $2.4 Billion.
As usual Fatsquatch is lying.................
“The White House estimates it cost $2 billion to provide back pay to federal employees ‘for services that could not be performed’ during the shutdown, is roughly $2.0 billion.”
ya but, 217 x 16 = 3472 :lol:
There was a 3 percent increase in restaurant beverage (primarily liquor) sales during the first week of October 2013 compared to the first week of September of this year.
Mike said:hypocritexposer said:Mike said:The figure by the OMB was $2 - $2.4 Billion.
As usual Fatsquatch is lying.................
ya but, 217 x 16 = 3472 :lol:
The reason why:There was a 3 percent increase in restaurant beverage (primarily liquor) sales during the first week of October 2013 compared to the first week of September of this year.