Government shutdown expenses add up to $11 billion

Isaiah Spencer | Staff Writer

The most recent government shutdown was the longest shutdown in U.S. history, and it cost the economy $11 billion.

For 35 days, the federal government went unfunded, causing $3 billion to be lost forever, according to NBC News.

With the five-week government shutdown now officially concluded, the additional good news is the economy is projected to gain as federal workers get their jobs back. The negative side of this situation is that this government shutdown is expected to make the economy 0.02% smaller than what it was projected to be in all of 2019, according to Forbes.

The 2018 government shutdown was initiated by President Donald Trump, who demanded $5.7 billion from the U.S. Congress to expand a wall between the border of Mexico and the United States.

“It just makes me mad because the people that voted for Trump are sick right now because this is what comes with him being our president,” said Tamara Whitley, a junior from Atlanta.

The wall funding request was denied by Democratic leaders Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi, after several rounds of negotiations.

One of the effects of this shutdown put some students in unfortunate situations because of their student loans. For some students, their loans were not approved due to the 35-day government shutdown.

“I couldn’t get one of my loans to go through due to the shutdown. So now I have to pay out of pocket,” said Cam Brinkley, an engineering major from Neptune, New Jersey.

President Trump agreed to reopen the government until Feb. 15.

This shutdown has had a major, negative effect on many organizations, including federal agencies who have lost funding, government employees who have not received paychecks, and patients whose bills have not been covered by Medicare and Medicaid.

According to Pilotonline, the shutdown also affected the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and Office of Personnel Management offices in Hampton Roads, as well as the Virginia district office of the Small Business Administration in Richmond.