Furloughed federal workers protest outside the U.S. Capitol $24 billion dollars is the answer. The 16 day long government shutdown over financing a healthcare reform for America's poorest citizens, that almost crashed the economy, cost the American Taxpayer $24 billion dollars. This was published in an estimate by Standard and Poor's. Another way to look at this is, it cost $1.5 billion dollars a day. The shutdown had a large affect on the economy, and it was estimated that fourth quarter GDP growth will be reduced from 3% to 2.5%. A breakdown of losses: $3.1 billion was lost to government services according to research firm IHS. $152 million was lost each day to travel spending by the U.S. Travel Association. $76 million per day was lost because the National Parks were closed. $216 million per day was lost in contractor wages in the D.C. area alone. The shutdown affected hundreds of thousands of federal workers. It affected small businesses and stalled many business loans. It put a halt on tourism in many areas and affected military families who rely on child services. Many federal workers will receive furloughed pay, but contractors will not. Financial predictions expect this to affect spending during the holidays. It is still amazing that our politicians would be so irresponsible to let the U.S. government shutdown for over two weeks. The future does not look promising either. The decision made last week to reopen the government is not a solution to the problem but merely a delay until January when the fight over spending and the debt ceiling will come down to another deadline. Hopefully our leaders in Washington can figure this out before then, as usual I am skeptical.
http://aclassasset.blogspot.com/2013/10/how-much-did-that-shutdown-actually-cost.html