We are now two weeks into the Government shutdown and as someone working in DC on The Hill I do not see an end in sight. At the moment Senate Democrats, who have dug in their heels, no longer have an off ramp that in previous shutdowns has been around.     One of the biggest talked about things the last couple of weeks is military pay. With a government shutdown what is truly being stopped are discretionary funding things nothing that is mandatory so your things like Social Security will continue to operate as is. "Funny" enough military pay is not something that is under the required funding and they fall under discretionary which is why there paychecks were in jeopardy. Given that there are military personal currently operating in active areas I have found the whole thing about them being sent off somewhere and not getting paid on time just absolutely wild.     Republicans were attempting to use this as a pain point and get Democrats to pass the funding for the CR so that the government could open and we could move on to the bigger and more important issue at hand funding the government for the next fiscal year. Instead as Democrats refused to back down and President Trump going this would be a terrible move to not pay service members and so he had the Pentagon figure it out. To be fair I am not entirely sold on the legality of moving around Congressionally appropriated money for DOD research and development spending but also.... its stupid to not pay them and honestly who is going to stand up in front of people and argue that the men and women who protect us should not be paid.     Because of this move this pain point started to disappear a couple of days ago when word got out that the Pentagon had a work around to address the paid issue. At least for this pay check. However, that is only the beginning of a number of new issues that are going to hit the US.     Likely the next domino to fall due to the funding lapse is going to be the Judiciary which has been burning through court fee balances and other funds not dependent on appropriations to keep operating at full capacity. Once this funding runs out the courts will shift to operating under the Anti-Deficiency Act which means support (courts and attorneys) will continue to work to support the exercise of Article III judicial power however each court and federal defenders office will have to determine the staffing resources required..... aka there will be more furloughs.     Today the Office of Management and Budget stated it was looking at various ways to pay Federal Law Enforcement officials due to the lapse in funding. I dont think it takes a rocket scientist here to say that if we stop paying the law enforcement officials holy crap are we begging for corruption within the ranks to take place.     The White House has also released plans if the shutdown continues to use the tariff revenue to keep the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children running as they are expected to burn through there emergency funding very soon. It is important to note that this is NOT SNAP. SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) is a different program that serves over 42 million Americans. They are the ones behind the EBT (Electronic Benefits Transfer) card that allow these families to feed themselves. SNAP does not expect to have funding for nutrition assistance if this shutdown goes into November.     Last but not least November first means the beginning of Obamacare enrollment and it is highly likely that people will get a hell of a sticker shock. While the insurance tax credits do not expire until December 31st when open enrollment starts people will be getting to look at what insurance would cost without these credits. Now mind you Obamacare was supposed to make insurance cheaper for everyone, something it failed at spectacularly, and now these tax credits are the only way to keep people insured.     Rather than fixing the actual issues with the system that is costing the US government hundreds of billions a year Congress has long just slapped tape onto it because touching Obamacare has been a no go for Democrats and something that even though it is awful for people voters in general tend to not realize you gotta go into it and change it to fix it. While I expect the tax credits to end up passing before the end of the year to keep them intact and thus keep the prices of insurance lower if the government isnt funded expect to see some crazy sticker shock.              

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