There’s a fair argument that the current president of the United States didn’t assiduously think through the entire implications of shutting his government down by vetoing a funding bill which didn’t include money to build a large wall along the Mexican border.
There have been government shutdowns before but they’ve been relatively short and the nation’s been able to skate over it. This one is looking set to eclipse all previous records for non-functioning US government and the longer it goes on, the bigger the potential problems.
A lot of government workers are currently on unpaid leave, but the problems don’t stop at a bunch of people who are technically employed not getting paid. As this drags out certain social programmes will have to pause: people in publicly-subsidised housing are facing possible eviction, and food stamps aren’t being honoured. And, obviously, those people are the least likely to have savings to fall back upon.
But that’s not a problem you’ll presumably face – how will the shutdown affect you, the Australian about to traipse around The America?
First up, while border security remains, things like passport control are on skeleton staff. So here’s hoping you’re OK for long airport queues and that there are no misplaced documents you need to sort out. There are already reports of “sick outs” as staff decide that they’re not down for working without being paid.
Possibly not what “sick out” actually means.
A lot of national parks are closed, and those that aren’t aren’t providing services like toilets, garbage collection or campsite check-in. Mind you, when phrases like “awash in garbage and human feces” are being bandied about, maybe you’d prefer to give them a miss anyway.
Most galleries and museums are also shut up tight, so if you were on that once in a lifetime visit to any Smithsonian museum or the Air And Space Museum then sorry, kids.
NASA’s fairly shut down too, by the way, although they did at least pop back in for the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to have the New Horizons probe (you know, the space robot that visited Pluto a few years ago) do a flyby of Ultima Thule, the smallest and most distant object humans have ever seen close up. That was worth doing.
Zoom with a view: Made from two images taken 38 minutes apart, here is #UltimaThule! The "Thule" lobe is closest to the @NASANewHorizons spacecraft. As Ultima Thule is seen to rotate, hints of the topography can be perceived. @NASAhttps://t.co/fKsyLeW9pY pic.twitter.com/5S9zZ5d3Eg
— Johns Hopkins APL (@JHUAPL) January 3, 2019
Then again, Trump and the rest of the nation’s politicians are still getting paid so you know, it’s not all bad.
As long as they don’t fancy taking the family out of a non-fecal picnic, that is.
Anyway, here’s hoping society doesn’t go completely Mad Max before you get on the flight home. Drop us a line!