News flash for House hard-liners: Shutdowns cost billions

House Republican extremists holding the government hostage want you to believe that they just want to “rein in” government spending and “get our fiscal house in order.” One former legislative counsel for Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul even advises, “A good old government shutdown is exactly what we need right now,” arguing that it will “push the budget closer to balance.”

Then there’s reality: Shutting down the government costs taxpayers billions of dollars in lost fees, revenue, administrative costs to both shut down and start government agencies back up, and back pay for furloughed federal employees. It means small businesses can’t get loans from the federal government for the duration. It will delay people from getting federally backed home loans. And while the Republican-controlled House is fiddling around doing nothing to solve the pending shutdown, it’s also not reauthorizing a bunch of other programs with a direct impact on people’s lives.

According to a 2019 investigation by a Senate subcommittee, “the last three government shutdowns cost taxpayers nearly $4 billion—at least $3.7 billion in back pay to furloughed federal workers, and at least $338 million in other costs associated with the shutdowns, including extra administrative work, lost revenue, and late fees on interest payments.” Everything from entrance fees at national parks to souvenir sales at gift shops shuts down, along with the government.