The reality of the current shutdown is that we are not feeling it because it is not a true shutdown. In fact, most of the USA government is not shut down, it continues to function. In a true shutdown, the different departments of government would all close up shop.
In that case, all Social Security payments would stop, all Medicare payments would stop, all Medicaid payments would stop, all GI Bill benefits would stop, all government construction would stop, all national parks would be fully shut down, etc., etc. We are living a deception.
That deception is made possible by a set of laws that were originally intended to tide the government over for a few days until a budget was passed. Those laws never envisioned a long-term shutdown, only a short-term shutdown. But, those laws are draconic.
You still have your benefits because a set of people are being forced to work without pay. The laws governing the government declaring certain employees as essential employees allows the government to keep those employees at work, unpaid, as virtual indentured servants, for as long as the government wishes. Could the employee leave? Certainly, at the cost of being fired, losing benefits, and maybe even being unhireable. In some professions, they might even be subject to legal proceedings.
Meanwhile, the same laws do not require any creditors to extend payments in an interest-free fashion. An unpaid federal employee could be foreclosed, and only public opinion might prevent the financial institution from going through with it. No grocery store need extend credit. No pharmacy need give out any unpaid prescription medicines.
In fact, the federal employee bears the full burden of the shutdown along with all associated financial and personal penalties. If their children go hungry, that is just so sad, too bad. The reality is that we are not feeling the weight of the shutdown because we are engaging in a type of indentured labor. The only people that are feeling the weight of the shutdown are the laid-off federal employees and the indentured servant employees.
Lest you say, but the government will return all the missed money to them, let me remind you that the government will not be liable for any of the additional financial weight borne by the families, such as additional interest penalties, possible loss of property, etc. More than that, who will give a federal employee a reasonably paid temporary job when they know that the employee will jump ship as soon as they are called back to work?
So, we are free to espouse our particular political viewpoints, knowing that we will not bear the burden for quite a while, for the government will keep functioning on the backs of those we have indentured and those who are waiting to be called back. We, ourselves, may never bear the burden, which frees us to argue for intransigence. For instance, when the IRS said they may not have the employees for tax return payments, lo and behold, the President indentured more unpaid servants in order to ensure that you and I would not be inconvenienced. The sad part is how many people have thought that this is OK, that we should get our money back, even if it forces others to go without room and board. What have we become?
I, myself, am a Federal retiree. I served my country. But, I know that I am not long down the line to lose (temporarily) my pension and my health insurance when the government needs to save more money in order to keep paying you. So, I face the prospect of doing more with less, as well.
I am to the point of saying that we need to actually shut down the government. It is unfair to force people to work without pay under threat of employment or legal action. Truly shutting down the government would put the increased pressure squarely were it belongs, on all of us and on both major political parties. For some to suffer while all too many of us make trolling comments, free in the knowledge that we are not truly affected, seems the height of uncaring immorality. Let us all suffer together, then let us all try to find the solution while facing the same unpleasant life pressures due to a shutdown.
It’s worse than you describe. We are no longer a nation functioning under the rule of law, which means we are in practical terms now an authoritarian state. People are being forced to work without pay in jobs and conditions that do not even meet the criteria of the laws you cite. Social security payments have a statutory date when they must be issued. So if there are no people to issue them, the statutory requirements could not be met. That is not true, for example, for tax refunds. They are required to be issued, but there is no statutory requirement to issue them by any given date. The federal government does not even begin to pay interest until May on late refunds. And interest is the only statutory obligation. So ordering tens of thousands of comparatively low paid IRS employees to work without pay to issue tax refunds is a clear violation of the laws you mention and all previous precedent. This is also a corrupt, kleptocratic regime. Earlier, employees were ordered to work without pay to service large mortgage brokers when they complained (and likely greased their request, given that it’s the world Mnuchin comes from). NTEU has a hearing on their motion for an injunction on 1/31 on those specific provisions. (Other groups are making different arguments.) The courts have already been so stacked, the first thing an authoritarian regime works to do, it’s hard to predict the results, but the law and precedent are perfectly clear. It’s an obvious violation of the provisions of the law you mention. If we were functioning as a nation under the rule of law, it would be an open and shut case. Since we aren’t, it’s anyone’s guess what will happen.
It is not sustainable. The TSA screening officers at airports having a starting payband that runs roughly from $12-$18 an hour. The IRS people they are recalling fall into a similar pay range. I’ve been poor, very poor as a teen husband and parent twice over. But even as circumstances improved, for a very long time with my large family we were struggling to make ends meet each and every month. I was in my 40s before I was at a point where even a single late or missed paycheck would not have been an immediate crisis. Frankly, I don’t know how they are still making it to work. Whether you drive or take public transportation, it costs money just to get to work. Many will have children who need child care, which typically isn’t free. Working costs money and if you aren’t getting paid, there’s no practical way to keep doing it. I hate seeing absences reported and discussed as “sickouts”. What do people expect them to do?
Finally, it’s not just possible civil legal consequences. The Coast Guard is a branch of the Armed Forces and functions under the UCMJ. Like you, I’m a veteran and I know what that means. If their enlisted service members don’t show up for work, that’s a crime and the possible penalties range from administrative punishment up to and including death. The latter is reserved for offenses like desertion in the face of the enemy, but it does fall within the range of penalties. Moreover, they do not have the option to quit until their term of enlistment has ended and they are discharged.
Finally, people enlist and join the civil service for many reasons. Sometimes it’s purely practical, but in many cases people could have earned more elsewhere, but chose to serve their country. That’s true for the military branches like the Coast Guard, but it’s also true throughout the civil service. In fact, about a third of the civil service are veterans. The oath is even similar to the oath of enlistment. It starts the same. It just omits some of the things that are specific to the military. The first thing sworn is “I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”