Q&A of the Day – What Really Happens During a Partial Government Shutdown
Each day I feature a listener question sent by one of these methods.
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Today’s Entry: @brianmuddradio I know you’ve talked about this before, but can you please do a story on what happens during a gov’t shutdown again. I’d like to share it on social media to all of the people who act like the sky is falling.
Bottom Line: With partial government shutdowns not being all that uncommon, and the “threat” of them having become especially common (this is the second time this year we’re having this conversation), you’re right – I've covered the concept quite a bit. As we know, a partial government shutdown was averted over the weekend with a 45-day stop gap funding bill – which means we could be having this conversation again just prior to Thanksgiving. For that reason, and due to the dearth of accurate reporting on the topic, I’m happy to address it again. As an aside though – pro tip... If you know I’ve covered a topic, just search online for that topic and my name and you’re likely to quickly find it. For that matter, even if you don’t know if I’ve covered a topic you might want to try searching for it because there’s always a chance I have. There’s not much that’s part of the news cycle or collective consciousness I haven’t covered over the past 25 years. So, about what happens during a partial government shutdown...
For starters...the term government shutdown is inaccurate. The federal government doesn't shutdown. It prioritizes. During a partial federal government shutdown there's discretion regarding what stays open and what doesn't. But there’s one area that isn’t open to interpretation. What are considered essential services. More on those in a moment. "Shutdowns" are largely a modern phenomenon due to increased partisanship - it's a byproduct of the budget process created in 1976. Since 1976, there have been 22 "partial government shutdowns", eleven have reached the stage where certain agencies and their employees are furloughed. The government doesn't work on pay-go, or a revenue in, revenue out approach - we're still accumulating debt and that's because... The Office of Management and Budget determines what remains open and what doesn't with the President of the United States being the final arbiter of what’s considered essential - with a few exceptions. The average impact during shutdowns historically has only been felt by 15 to 20% of the 430 federal agencies.
We've averaged some type of partial government shutdown every two to three years since 1976. They’ve often proved instructive as you can get a sense of what the real priorities of an administration are, in addition to the extent they’re interested in playing politics. An example would be President Obama shutting down National Parks during 2013’s partial government shutdown. Records show it actually was more expensive to close the parks down than it was to operate them. It was a clear political maneuver to attempt to pressure Congressional Republicans. And by the way, if approximately 344 federal government agencies still work during a “shutdown” - we probably have too much federal government anyway. Hence why I recently said this:
Less federal government? Sign me up. Maybe there will be a partial government shutdown this weekend, maybe there won’t. But if there is, here’s what you should know. 1) The sun will rise 2) The only way you’ll even notice that there is one is if President Biden goes out of his way to try to make you feel it a la President Obama when he spent more money to keep the National Parks closed than it would have cost to keep them open. If there’s a partial government shutdown the only lament that I would have is to not make it permanent. A partial government shutdown will impact only “non-essential” services. Which a) a federal government that’s $33 trillion in debt and growing by the day shouldn’t be providing in the first place and b) Which would still leave us running deficits by the day because our country can’t even afford what’s been considered “essential” government services. We shouldn’t lament 15% less federal government for a short period of time...we should embrace it and make it permanent...and then keep going to downsize the size of our bloated bureaucracy to that of something that we could actually afford. Which, by the way if we did, there would never be another government shutdown again. It’s a permanent solution to this problem.
As always, there are two sides to facts. And the fact of the matter is that the only time in the previous 47 years our federal government has lived within its means is during a partial government shutdown. The practice of partial government shutdowns isn’t the best way to achieve that outcome – nor has it been sustained because in every prior partial government shutdown what wasn’t spent operating the government during the partial shutdown is retroactively spent anyway (a la back pay for furloughed government employees which essentially has established additional paid vacation time at taxpayer expense). That takes me to my final thought on the topic that might be useful for the purpose of sharing this story on social media or just having a conversation with others about the potential for partial shutdowns. I have two very basic questions that should transcend partisan politics. Should the federal government live within its means? Should we really be operating 86 “non-essential” federal government agencies with the country $33 trillion in debt and growing?