Money for nothing: Government shutdown costs $12.5 million per hour
Money for nothing: Government shutdown costs $12.5 million per hour
http://www.nbcnews.com/business/money-nothing-government-shutdown-costs-12-5-million-hour-8C11308802
Here's the price tag for the first government shutdown in 17 years: about $1.6 billion a week, $300 million a day, or $12.5 million an hour.
That estimate, from economic consulting firm IHS Global Insight, covers just the cost in work and services the government is unable to perform as it furloughs 800,000 federal workers. According to IHS, pay for federal employees is considered part of the Gross Domestic Product, which is the total value of all goods and services produced in the nation each year. So no pay for the workers means no contribution to U.S. economic output.
The furloughed workers likely will get back pay when they return to work, as they did the last time Washington shut down. But for now, they are not performing the government's work, except for essential personnel.
"Although $300 million per day sounds like a big number, it is only a couple of thousandths of a percent of the total GDP," of about $16 trillion, said Paul Edelstein, director of financial economics at IHS.
Whether that will have an impact on the U.S. economy in the longer term, is less clear. President Barack Obama said in a statement from the White House Rose Garden Tuesday that the longer the shutdown goes on, the more dire the consequences will be for the economy.
(more at link)
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So the party that claims to be so very concerned about reducing the debt is costing the country 12.5 million dollars an hour?
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