The Tea Party Republicans in Congress shut down the United States Government for over two weeks. They did it to protest … something. In the end, it gained them … nothing. Federal employees will be paid retroactively, but government contractors and retailers serving public employees and their families had no business this month. Of course, the salaries of cranky congressmen continued uninterrupted.
The shutdown is over, at least for now, but what has this Republican hissy fit cost America? The total tab won’t be complete for another couple of months, but Standard & Poor’s puts the loss to the economy at $24 billion, $1.6 billion a day.
More:
“Gridlock Has Cost U.S. Billions, and the Meter Is Still Running,” Annie Lowery, Nathaniel Popper, and Nelson D. Schwartz, New York Times
“Was the Point Republicans Made in the Shutdown Worth the Price?’ Gerald F. Seib, Wall Street Journal
“What You Can Get For The Price Of A Shutdown,” Bryce Covert, Think Progress
“House Republicans Hold Hearing on Why Their Shutdown Shut Things Down,” Tim Murphy, Mother Jones
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Tags: "Tea Party", Congress, economy, GOP, government shutdown, Republicans, shutdown
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