How is the current situation in the USA affecting you?

[Cindy]

I post this for information rather than political debate.

The current Government close down in the USA seems totally weird for most people outside of the USA.

How is it and is it affecting our USA members?

How are you coping? Do people have advice for members who may be affected?

[KabitTarah]

I'm trying to be as apolitical as possible here... but I am pro- equal rights and non-discrimination, which is a big part of this health care bill.

I'm happy that our government is able to stand up to the bullies trying to strike important legislation that was voted in legally.
I feel as though certain members of our government are telling the federal workers (and soon all federal workers and contractors) "why not eat cake?" (Or my modern interpretation "they're out of liquid assets? Why don't they just trade in some blue chip stock?").

Thankfully I am not (yet) furloughed and may be ok for a while.

Don't forget, too, that 6+ days of pay were "stolen" from federal workers last year. We seem to be the scapegoat of politics we don't understand.

[Missy~rmdlm]

Nothing so far. I am local government employee, not federal. It's vaguely bothersome that the nearest national park ( the arch ) isn't open, I was up in the arch only five weeks ago with my SO. The situation is much more unpleasant if the little game of chicken goes into wreck mode. As I understand it the vast majority of fed employees will get full back pay, thus the grandstanding actually does cost money, not save it. It's a matter of if your are one of the furloughed employees budgeting for the dry pay spell.
On the deeper reading there really are people advocating for succession, this isn't unusual in US history, including actual succession on some most unfortunate circumstances. As a TS individual I have a vague connection to this as some of the succession talk is directly related to preserving legality of discrimination against me.