The GOP Shutdown stunt carries with it a heavy price tag ... one yet to be collect against our still-recovering economy.
Government shutdown: Cost could be up to $24 billion
by John W. Schoen, CNBC, nbcnews.com -- Oct. 17, 2013
[...]
As the dust settles, economists are adding up the collateral damage. The results aren’t pretty:
* The loss of government services during the three-week shutdown will take a roughly $3.1 billion bite out of gross domestic product, according to economists at IHS Global Insight. That represents just the hit from lost government services.
* The shutdown also forced non-government business losses, temporary layoffs and other interruptions in business spending. The full extent of the damage won’t be known for some time. Economists at Standard & Poor’s estimate the total cost at about $24 billion, or a 0.6 percent GDP haircut. Others guess it's about half that. Either way, it's a heavy price to pay.
* Then there's the loss in U.S. economic prestige, which is also hard to gauge, but keeps getting whittled away every time Washington goes into gridlock over spending.
[...]
There are scads of services we could have gotten with that $24 Billion "tax" the Republicans have just levied against the U.S. Economy. Just a few examples of which, U.S. Sen.
Elizabeth Warren, D-MA, recently noted:
"According to the S&P index, the government shutdown had delivered a powerful blow to the U.S. economy. By their estimates, $24 billion has been flushed down the drain for a completely unnecessary political stunt," Warren wrote in the email. "$24 billion dollars. How many children could have been back in Head Start classes? How many seniors could have had a hot lunch through Meals on Wheels? How many scientists could have gotten their research funded? How many bridges could have been repaired and trains upgraded?"
What about those Food Stamp cuts? How about long overdue Infrastructure/Flood control repairs?
$24 Billion dollars could have bought a heck of a lot of publicly-owed Windmills ...
Here are a few more things that have a $24 Billion dollar price tag:
What could we have done with $24 billion?
by Azeezat Adeleke, thepolitic.org -- October 18, 2013
[...]
So, let’s consider the counterfactual. What could we have done with the $24 billion dollars that we sent down the drain over the past sixteen days?
We could have built about 1,200 high schools.
We could have paid for about four million Pell Grants.
We could have funded the budget of the entire University of California System.
We could have green-lighted more than twelve thousand National Institutes of Health research grants.
[...]
Here are a few more $24B investment ideas (ie. "luxuries squandered") as posted to
#24Billion:
What would you have spent $24 Billion dollar on, instead of the GOP Pity Party Parade?
What a swell investment that was, eh? And "the Economy" is supposed to be their strong suit. Hah!