GOP Shutdown Theats Already Costing Us Money

Steve Benen shares an email from a contact in the Obama administration about preparations for a government shutdown, indicating that is already costing us money. He notes the irony of those who want to cut the budget forcing a needless expense because of their threats and political posturing.

Lots of decisions are still to be made, but it appears that almost all of our websites will be offline. We are literally unplugging our servers from the wall and the internet. We need to do that since neither the content nor security people are allowed to monitor the websites during a government shutdown.

So what does that mean? Rather than have a 404 error, we want a simple “away” message to explain that, because of the shutdown, the website isn’t available. I don’t want it to appear that my team and I are incompetent! It isn’t our fault, Mr. Web Surfer, that you can’t get the info you need.

Since there is no time for me to put out a contract offer (nor is there any money appropriated for it, anyway), I had to attach myself to a five-figure contract we already had with a cloud host provider to ensure we can display a simple “away” message. This is amazing overkill. I don’t think it will cost that much, but we just don’t know how long their services will be needed.

Starting tomorrow my tech guys will be working with the provider’s tech folks to ensure a seamless transition Saturday morning. In addition to lost productivity by my team, the provider’s tech team isn’t cheap.

In the event we don’t shutdown (and I don’t want to), I’ll still be out the pay for the provider’s tech guys AND several days’ worth of lost productivity.

Just think of this multiplied across other offices and 20+ other departments.

Here are just some of the effects of a shutdown:

IRS tax audits would be halted in their tracks, this weekend’s National Cherry Blossom Festival Parade in Washington canceled, and national parks and the Smithsonian shuttered if Congress can’t reach agreement on annual spending and the government shuts down at midnight Friday.

The military, federal law enforcement and other key officials would still be at work, earning pay – except their paychecks would be halted until the government funding stream is turned back on…

In the District, the seat of the federal government, the city’s authority to spend its own money would expire Friday at midnight, and trash collections and parking-ticket writing would be halted. But police and firefighters still would report for duty, and schools would remain open.

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.