I won't be getting on a soap box since I admittedly don't entirely understand how all of this happens. Frankly, I thought it was illegal. But, I do want to let you know how the government shutdown could affect your life in the coming days, should they shut down for longer than 24 hours...

According to CNN:

1. No national parks. You can't go to Yosemite, Yellowstone or the Statue of Liberty on vacation if you wanted to. Or any other national park, national zoo or national museum. They'll all be closed...all 368 sites run by the National Park Service.

2. If you're a federal employee, you're on unpaid leave. But in the two shutdowns we had in the '90s, they DID pay all the employees retroactively when the shutdown ended.

3. Military employees WILL get paid. Congress put in a special exemption for them during all this nonsense.

4. You would STILL pay taxes. What else did you expect?

5. You would still get your mail. Neither snow, nor rain, nor government shutdowns can stop the Postal Service.

6. Obamacare would STILL get funded. Its funds don't depend on the congressional budget process. So the Republican effort to stop Obamacare will actually KEEP IT GOING.

7. You won't be able to get a gun permit. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms would be closed.

8. No federal loans. No small business loans and no home loans. And veterans' benefits wouldn't be paid either. But Social Security payments would be expected to continue.

9. For Washington, D.C., there would be no city services. Including trash collection. The city budget has to be approved by Congress.

10. American pride would suffer. Or maybe not, who knows. Most of us have plenty to spare. But it never looks good for the most powerful country on Earth to be floundering around with no leadership and no cash flow.

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