Obama Planned This Government Shutdown, Weeks in Advance

SOURCE LINKS:

A Federal Budget Crisis Months in the Planning
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/06/us/...

Government Shutdown Was Planned For Months By Ed Meese, Koch Bros
http://radio.foxnews.com/2013/10/06/g...

Koch family (Wikipedia)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koch_family

The New York Times (Wikipedia)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_...

Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Jr. (Wikipedia)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_O....

(Video) Govt Shutdown Planned Well In Advance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hQe-R...

(Video) Government shutdown planned in advance? Yes, it was.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCwWB0...

President Issues Message to Federal Workers on Shutdown
http://www.defense.gov/home/features/...

DOD Taking Prudent Steps in Face of Government Shutdown
http://www.defense.gov/news/newsartic...

Most AF civilians to return to work
http://www.af.mil/News/ArticleDisplay...

Obama says he'd talk on GOP's terms -- if they raise debt ceiling, fund government
http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/08/politic...

U.S. could face default as early as Oct. 22, new analysis finds
http://www.latimes.com/business/money...

A U.S. Default Seen as Catastrophe Dwarfing Lehman's Fall
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10...

Pentagon Warns To Expect “Radical” Change In US Government Soon

A highly troubling “urgent bulletin” issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) states that it has received information from the Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) warning to expect a “radical change” in the government of the United States, possibly within the next fortnight, based on information they have received from “highly placed” sources within the Pentagon.

According to this MoFA bulletin, GRU intelligence assests were notified by their Pentagon counterparts this past week that President Barack Obama is preparing to invoke the powers given to him under 50 USC Chapter 13 to hold that various American States are now in a “state of insurrection” thus allowing him to invoke the National Emergencies Act under 50 USC § 1621 and invoke the highly controversial “continuity of government” plan for the United States allowing him, in essence, to rule with supreme powers.

Specifically, this bulletin says, Obama will invoke 50 USC § 212 that states: “ the President shall have declared by proclamation that the laws of the United States are opposed, and the execution thereof obstructed, by combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings”

The specific laws being opposed by these “combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings,” that Obama will outline in his reasoning’s for declaring a state of emergency, this bulletin continues, are the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), otherwise known as Obamacare.

The NDAA is opposed by many US States, this bulletin says, with California joining Alaska and Virginia this past week in passing a law making it illegal to be enforced in their territory, and with many other States, also, preparing to do the same.

The specific portions of the NDAA law being opposed by these US States allows for the indefinite detention without charges or trial of all American citizens and allows for their assassination should Obama order it.

The PPACA (Obamacare) law is, likewise, opposed by over half of the US States and has led to an American “shutdown” this past week that has closed 15% of their government, but has left fully 85% of it still open.

To the specific “combinations too powerful” Obama will cite in his declaration of National Emergency as being needed to be defeated by extraordinary measures, the MoFA says, is a faction of the US House of Representatives popularly known as the Republican Tea Party whom the President and his allies have likened to “hostage takers” and “political terrorists.”

Obama’s greatest fear, and reason(s) for declaring a National State of Emergency, this bulletin continues, was outlined yesterday by his US Treasury Department who released a report yesterday warning of potentially “catastrophic” damage should Congress fail to raise the debt ceiling and prevent the government from defaulting on its debt.

As the current US government shutdown crisis and debt ceiling fight have now merged, the MoFA warns in this bulletin, Obama further warned yesterday that an impasse on the debt ceiling beyond 17 October, when the US government will be essentially out of cash to pay its bills, could start a downward economic plunge worse than the recession of five years ago – with credit markets seizing up, the dollar’s value plummeting and US interest rates soaring and even coming close to the brink of such an unprecedented default that could roil both domestic and foreign financial markets.

Preparing to oppose Obama, should he, in fact, declare a National State of Emergency, the GRU grimly warns, is the US military who themselves are preparing to invoke 50 USC § 842 which allows them to protect America from “The Communist Party of the United States, or any successors of such party regardless of the assumed name, whose object or purpose is to overthrow the Government of the United States, or the government of any State, Territory, District, or possession thereof…”

Not known to many Americans is that the Progressive movement Obama belongs to, and whose media acolyte “presstitutes” swept into office, have long been associated with the Communist Party.

And, as the World Net Daily News Service reported this past August, John C. Drew, Ph.D., the award-winning political scientist, met Obama in 1980 and wrote in 2011: “[Obama] believed that the economic stresses of the Carter years meant revolution was still imminent. The election of Reagan was simply a minor set-back in terms of the coming revolution. … Obama was blindly sticking to the simple Marxist theory … ‘there’s going to be a revolution.’ Obama said, ‘we need to be organized and grow the movement.’ In Obama’s view, our role must be to educate others so that we might usher in more quickly this inevitable revolution.”

With Obama’s “revolution” now at hand, the GRU warns in this bulletin, it is critical to note that that United States, unlike other nations, have all of their elected officials and military personal swear allegiance to the US Constitution, and not to their government or its leaders.

The most recent example of this conflict between Obama and the US military, the GRU further states, was in Egypt when the Obama regime supported Muslim Brotherhood was overthrown by the Pentagon backed Egyptian military, and who, like the United States, makes its political and military leaders swear allegiance to their constitution, not to any of its leaders.

As many in America now know that these present times are not the normal activities of a government seeking peace and prosperity, and as dozens of undisclosed Obama Presidential directives that define US national security policy and task government agencies are still unknown either to the public or, as a rule, to the US Congress, this bulletin warns in its summation that with each passing day American can be more likened to a communist dictatorship than a functioning democracy.

So bad, in fact, has the United States become that one of its legendary reporters, Pulitzer Prize winner Seymour Hersh wrote this past week that the Obama administration lies systematically yet none of the leviathans of American media, the TV networks or big print titles, challenge him.

Even worse, and in a further Sovietization of American Life by the Obama regime, the US this past week refused to grant entry visas to internationally renowned authors Ilija Trojanov and Ernst Titovets who were invited to speak at conferences, and which Justin Raimondo of the highly respected Antiwar.com blog calls “part of a disturbing pattern of repression that all points to one ineluctable conclusion: the United States is the Soviet Union of the new millennium – an ideological state with global ambitions that holds itself up as the epitome of “freedom” and yet is the single most powerful enemy of liberty worldwide.”

Source

Oct 17th Deadline For the USA Debt Default - WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?

What is REALLY going on is a lie, all created by those that own the Federal Reserve, and World Banks; they have no need for wealth; they have it all now.  

They now are concerned with power, and competing with every nation to take full control of the whole world's resources, of which WE are!  

The New World Order. 

The Federal Reserve is NOT part of our government; it is a privately owned bank that prints money from the air, (Isn't that called counterfeiting?) and loans it to the US.  Our tax dollars, among other sources pay these high interest loans.  These are the world's Banking Cabal that we are told we now owe over 16 trillion "counterfeit" dollars...  This is completely impossible for the US to ever repay; we are debtor slaves, living on false credit.   
The USA has NO real money, OR gold; the Federal Reserve took our gold from Fort Knox ,as collateral, years ago.  

This corruption is completely out of control!

The Debt Ceiling they refer to is just another, higher number they pick out of the air, BUT, make us think there is actually mathematics involved.  The term, "Debt Ceiling" is merely a code word, or more definitively, a Key word that is used to sway our way of thinking towards believing that if it [our "Debt Ceiling"] isn't raised by Oct 17th, then our Debt Defaults.

(If your mortgage defaults, you go into Foreclosure, and lose your home, with a sheriff's presence to remove you from your home if you do not move out before the Debt Foreclosure date.) 

In the case of the current Administration declaring, on Oct 17th, that the USA has defaulted because the "Debt Ceiling" was not raised, (there's that key word again, that programs your belief system)  

“The first, biggest owner [of U.S. debt] is the Social Security fund, so you’d have all of these people who are receiving Social Security payments who now have to question whether they’ll get their payments.” According to veteran financial sector analyst Richard Bove, VP of research at Rafferty Capital Markets.  

Millions of Americans will suddenly be thrown into complete poverty, with no income of any kind.

But Bove says that is only the beginning, since the second biggest holder of Treasuries (at about 12% - another number pulled out of the air - of the total[debt]) is the Federal Reserve, which has “91% - another number out of the air - of its assets backed by U.S. government debt.”  If the value of those assets were to decline, which they indisputably would in a default, Bove says the net effect would be that “we have nothing of value backing the dollar.”  [They are] actually 'Federal Reserve Notes’ as well as the number one asset of choice held in the reserves of governments and businesses all over the world.

All this, coinciding with the 'compulsory' ObamaCare enrolments and payments demanded from ALL the people of the USA, right now!   

IF the USA Defaults on its Debt (remember, this is a number they pulled out of the air) on Oct 17th, we will enter a Depression that will dwarf the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Again, I must bring up the key word, I have used here, and that is: "IF."  

Whether the Senate allows this to happen on the Oct 17th deadline is left to be determined.  I believe they will bring us precariously close to the date, but the fantasy "Debt Ceiling" will be raised just in time to continue our Social Security; as well as their jobs, to keep us plodding along obediently, following their carrot words.

"IF" the USA Defaults on its fantasy Debt, then our fears of the ‘planned’ crash of the US Dollar and our way of life will cease to exist.  The elitist's agenda will show its full face to us.

 

Sadly, most of the citizens of the USA will not realize what has suddenly happened to their lives, and the chaos will soon create a citizen uprising.   

A large minority of the People of the United States that ARE awake, will also begin their full, all out uprising, and our All-Mighty, Far-Too-Big Government will officially declare war on its own citizens. 

We are being prepared, and have been being prepared for this life-altering event.  

We have watched the militarization of our police force, and have been conditioned to see military vehicles and full soldier presence in our streets for some time now. 

FEMA Camps in the hundreds have been filled with employees and security personnel.  They ARE real, and now active and ready to begin taking the citizens of the USA into their camps; modern day concentration camps… 

IF the USA Defaults on its Debt...  This remains to be seen...

I will repeat:

I believe Obama and the Senate will bring us precariously close to the date, but the fake "Debt Ceiling" will be raised just in time to continue our Social Security; as well as their jobs, to keep us plodding along obediently, following their carrot words.

The United States of America is crumbling under the weight of No Democratic Leadership.  Democracy is gone, and is rapidly being replaced with a Dictatorial President that has No Regard for the People of this Once Great Nation.  

Are YOU Prepared?

Jesse Ventura: Shutdown is 'Despicable,' Pardon Manning and Snowden

Jesse Ventura Announces, on CNN, That He Intends to Run For President in 2016

On CNN, while on the Piers Morgan show, Jesse Ventura took over the conversation a few times, not giving Piers a word in edgeways.  He referred to the President that didn't belong to ANY party: George Washington.  Jesse said he became a senator belonging to NO party, and that if the Presidential Debates would open the talks to more than only two parties; the Democtrats and the Republicans, he will run for President in the 2016 elections. He said if he could be included in the Debates, he would win easily. 

The audience loved him, and you could see a complete shift in the minority of the audience that was either Democrat, or Republican.  

He said that if the government is shut down, “That should mean we shouldn’t have to pay any taxes, right?”  He wasn't kidding.

He called out for another American revolution to push back against the “corrupt system” created by Democrats and Republicans in Washington, and furthered that, saying that not all Revolutions have to be violent.

Jesse referred to the Republicans and Democrats as “gangs” who have effectively legalized bribery in the American legislature. 

He said to Piers that the two-party system has legalized “bribery” for access, saying he’s fed up enough now, to actually run for president in 2016.   Ventura called both parties “gangs,” and Morgan admitted, saying he had to agree; adding that "they are a bunch of gangs; overpaid, underworked children!”

It is this writer's opinion that IF Jesse Ventura does indeed run for President, that he just could win, and that would NOT be a bad thing at all.  If he is not assassinated, as President, he just could be the one to change everything, and bring the United States back together as a functioning, and prosperous country.  The country that We The People deserve.  As it is presently, We The People DO NOT DESERVE the lives we are fighting against, and struggling with now.

Everything You Need to Know About the US Government Shutdown 2013

Absolutely everything you need to know about how the government shutdown will work

By Brad Plumer, Published: September 30 at 12:22 pm

A government shutdown starting Tuesday, Oct. 1, is now upon us. The House and Senate couldn't agree on a bill to fund the government, and time has run out.

The photograph is cleverly shot to make it look like the gates of the federal government are literally closing. Neat, eh? (The Washington Post)

So... it's shutdown time. Let's take a look at how this will work.

Not all government functions will simply evaporate come Oct. 1 — Social Security checks will still get mailed, and veterans' hospitals will stay open. But many federal agencies will shut their doors and send their employees home, from the Environmental Protection Agency to hundreds of national parks.

Here's a look at how a shutdown will work, which parts of the government will close, and which parts of the economy might be affected.

Wait, what? Why is the federal government on the verge of shutting down?

The fiscal crises will continue until morale improves. House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio). (Scott Applewhite/AP)

Short answer: There are wide swaths of the federal government that need to be funded each year in order to operate. If Congress can't agree on how to fund them, they have to close down. And, right now, Congress can't agree on how to fund them.

To get a bit more specific: Each year, the House and Senate are supposed to agree on 12 appropriations bills to fund the federal agencies and set spending priorities. Congress has become really bad at passing these bills, so in recent years they've resorted to stopgap budgets to keep the government funded (known as "continuing resolutions"). The last stopgap passed on March 28, 2013, and ends on Sept. 30.

In theory, Congress could pass another stopgap before Tuesday. But the Democratic-controlled Senate and Republican-controlled House are at odds over what that stopgap should look like. The House passed a funding bill over the weekend that delayed Obamacare for one year and repealed a tax on medical devices. The Senate rejected that measure. They voted a few more times and still no agreement. So... we're getting a shutdown.

Does a shutdown mean everyone who works for the federal government has to go home?

Not exactly. The laws and regulations governing shutdowns separate federal workers into "essential" and "non-essential." (Actually, the preferred term nowadays is "excepted" and "non-excepted." This was tweaked in 1995 because "non-essential" seemed a bit hurtful. But we'll keep things simple.)

The Office of Management and Budget recently ordered managers at all federal agencies to conduct reviews to see which of their employees fall into each of these two categories. If a shutdown hits, the essential workers stick around, albeit without pay. The non-essential workers have to go home after a half-day of preparing to close shop.

Which parts of government stay open?

Air traffic control stays open. (Jim Weber/AP)

There are a whole bunch of key government functions that carry on during a shutdown, including anything related to national security, public safety, or programs written into permanent law (like Social Security). Here's a partial list:

-- Any employee or office that "provides for the national security, including the conduct of foreign relations essential to the national security or the safety of life and property." That means the U.S. military will keep operating, for one. So will embassies abroad.

-- Any employee who conducts "essential activities to the extent that they protect life and property." So, for example: Air traffic control stays open. So does all emergency medical care, border patrol, federal prisons, most law enforcement, emergency and disaster assistance, overseeing the banking system, operating the power grid, and guarding federal property.

-- Agencies have to keep sending out benefits and operating programs that are written into permanent law or get multi-year funding. That means sending out Social Security checks and providing certain types of veterans' benefits. Unemployment benefits and food stamps will also continue for the time being, since their funding has been approved in earlier bills.

-- All agencies with independent sources of funding remain open, including the U.S. Postal Service and the Federal Reserve.

-- Members of Congress can stick around, since their pay is written into permanent law. Congressional staffers however, will also get divided into essential and non-essential, with the latter getting furloughed. Many White House employees could also get sent home.

Do these "essential" employees who keep working get paid?

The 1.3 million or so "essential" civilian employees who stay on could well see their paychecks delayed during the shutdown, depending on the timing. They should, however, receive retroactive pay if and when Congress decides to fund the government again.

The 1.4 million active-service military members, meanwhile, will get paid no matter how long the shutdown lasts. That's because the House and Senate specifically passed a bill to guarantee active-duty military pay even when the government is closed. Obama signed it into law Monday night.

So which parts of government actually shut down?

 

Closed! Well, unless Arizona wants to pay to operate it. (Ron Watts / Corbios)

Everything else, basically. It's a fairly long list, and you can check out in detail which activities the agencies are planning to halt in these contingency plans posted by each agency. Here are a few select examples:

Health: The National Institutes of Health will stop accepting new patients for clinical research and stop answering hotline calls about medical questions. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will stop its seasonal flu program and have a "significantly reduced capacity to respond to outbreak investigations."

Housing: The Department of Housing and Urban Development will not be able to provide local housing authorities with additional money for housing vouchers. The nation's 3,300 public housing authorities will also stop receiving payments, although most of these agencies have enough cash on hand to provide rental assistance through the end of October.

Immigration: The Department of Homeland Security will no longer operate its E-Verify program, which means that businesses will not be able to check on the legal immigration status of prospective employees during the shutdown.

Law enforcement: Although agencies like the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Agency will continue their operations, the Justice Department will suspend many civil cases for as long as the government is shut down.

Parks and museums: The National Park Service will close more than 400 national parks and museums, including Yosemite National Park in California, Alcatraz in San Francisco, and the Statue of Liberty in New York. The last time this happened during the 1995-96 shutdown, some 7 million visitors were turned away. (One big exception was the south rim of the Grand Canyon, which stayed open only because Arizona agreed to pick up the tab.)

Regulatory agencies: The Environmental Protection Agency will close down almost entirely during a shutdown, save for operations around Superfund sites. Many of the Labor Department's regulatory offices will close, including the Wage and Hour Division and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. (The Mine Safety and Health Administration will, however, stay open.)

Financial regulators. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which oversees the vast U.S. derivatives market, will largely shut down. A few financial regulators, however, such as the Securities and Exchange Commission, will remain open.

(Small parts of) Social Security: The Social Security Administration will retain enough staff to make sure the checks keep going out. But the agency won't have enough employees to do things like help recipients replace their benefit cards or schedule new hearings for disability cases.

Visas and passports: The State Department says it will keep most passport agencies and consular operations open so long as it has the funds to do so, although some activities might be interrupted. (For instance, "if a passport agency is located in a government building affected by a lapse in appropriations, the facility may become unsupported.")

During the previous shutdown in 1995-1996, around 20,000 to 30,000 applications from foreigners for visas went unprocessed each day. This time around, the State Department is planning to continue processing visas through the shutdown, since those operations are largely funded by fees collected.

Veterans: Some key benefits will continue and the VA hospitals will remained open. But many services will be disrupted. The Veterans Benefits Administration will be unable to process education and rehabilitation benefits. The Board of Veterans' Appeals will be unable to hold hearings.

What's more, if the shutdown lasts for more than two or three weeks, the Department of Veterans Affairs has said that it may not have enough money to pay disability claims and pension payments. That could affect some 3.6 million veterans.

Women, Infants, and Children: The Department of Agriculture will cut off support for the Women, Infants and Children program, which helps pregnant women and new moms buy healthy food and provides nutritional information and health care referrals. The program reaches some 9 million Americans. The USDA estimates most states have funds to continue their programs for "a week or so," but they'll "likely be unable to sustain operations for a longer period" — emergency funds may run out by the end of October.
Rep. Rush Holt (D-N.J.) has a list of other possible effects of a shutdown. Funds to help states administer unemployment benefits could get disrupted, IRS tax-refund processing for certain returns would be suspended, farm loans and payments would stop, and Small Business Administration approval of business loan guarantees and direct loans would likely cease.

Would the city of Washington D.C. be affected?

D.C.'s garbage collection stops during a shutdown. (The Washington Post)

Only if the shutdown goes on longer than a few weeks. In theory, the District of Columbia is supposed to shut down all but its most essential services during a government shutdown. But Mayor Vincent Gray has said that he will label all city services "essential" and use a cash reserve fund to keep everything going for as long as possible.

Some background: The District of Columbia is the only city barred from spending funds during a federal government shutdown, save for a few select services. During the 1995-'96 shutdown, the city was only able to keep police, firefighters and EMS units on duty. Trash collection and street sweeping came to a stop until Congress finally intervened.

This time, however, the District is taking a more defiant stance. Gray has recently said that he will declare all city services "essential" and keep them running. And the city has $144 million in funds to carry out services like trash collection and street sweeping for two weeks. If the shutdown drags on longer, however, it's unclear what will happen...

How many federal employees would be affected by a government shutdown?

Half of you go home. (Jeffrey MacMillan/For The Washington Post)

The government estimates that roughly 800,000 federal workers will get sent home if the government shuts down.

That leaves about 1.3 million "essential" federal workers, 1.4 million active-duty military members, 500,000 Postal Service workers, and other employees in independently-funded agencies who will continue working.
Can you give me an agency-by-agency breakdown of the impacts?

Yes. We've been compiling a detailed list here at the Post, but here's a brief overview, showing how many employees are furloughed, and examples of who stays and who goes:

Department of Commerce: 87 percent of the agency's 46,420 employees would be sent home. (The Weather Service would keep running, for instance, but the Census Bureau would close down.)

Department of Defense: 50 percent of the 800,000 civilian employees would be sent home while all 1.4 million active-duty military members would stay on. (Environmental engineers, for instance, would get furloughed, and the agency could not sign any new defense contracts.)

Department of Energy: Thanks to multi-year funding, parts of the agency can actually operate for "a short period of time" after Sept. 30. But eventually 69 percent of the agency's 13,814 employees will be sent home. (Those in charge of nuclear materials and power grids stay. Those conducting energy research go home.)

Environmental Protection Agency: 94 percent of the 16,205 employees will be sent home. (Those protecting toxic Superfund sites stay. Pollution and pesticide regulators get sent home.)

Federal Reserve: Everyone would stay, since the central bank has an independent source of funding.
Editor's note:  The Federal Reserve is NOT part of our government; it is a privately owned bank that prints money from the air, (Isn't that called counterfeiting?) and loans it to the US.  Our tax dollars, among other sources pay these high interest loans. These are the banking Cabal that we now owe over 16 trillion "counterfeit" dollars...  This is techically impossible for the US to ever repay; we are debtor slaves, living on false credit.  The US has NO real money, or gold; the Federal Reserve took our gold from Fort Knox ,as collateral, years ago.  This corruption is completely out of control!

Department of Health and Human Services: 52 percent of 78,198 employees would be sent home. (Those running the Suicide Prevention Lifeline would stay, those in charge of investigating Medicare fraud would go home.)

Department of Homeland Security: 14 percent of the 231,117 employees would go home. (Border Patrol would stay. Operations of E-Verify would cease. The department will also suspend disaster-preparedness grants to states and localities.)

Department of Housing and Urban Development: 95 percent of the 8,709 employees would go home. (Those in charge of guaranteeing mortgages at Ginnie Mae would stay, as would those in charge of homelessness programs. Almost everything else would come to a halt.)

Department of Interior: 81 percent of the 72,562 employees would be sent home. (Wildlife law enforcement officers would stay, while the national parks would close.)

Department of Justice: 15 percent of the 114,486 employees would go home. (FBI agents, drug enforcement agents, and federal prison employees would stay. The department would continue running background checks for gun sales. Some attorneys would go home.)

Department of Labor: 82 percent of the 16,304 employees would be sent home. (Mine-safety inspectors will stay. Wage and occupational safety regulators will go home. Employees compiling economic data for the Bureau of Labor Statistics will also get furloughed.)

NASA: 97 percent of the 18,134 employees would be sent home. (Scientists working on the International Space Station will stay. Many engineers will go home.)

U.S. Postal Service: Everyone would stay, since the Postal Service is self-funded.

Social Security Administration: 29 percent of the 62,343 employees would be sent home. (Claims representatives would stay; actuaries would go home.)

Supreme Court and federal courts. Federal courts, will continue to operate for approximately two weeks with reserve funds. After that, only essential employees would continue to work, as determined by the chief judge, with the rest furloughed. (The Supreme Court will continue to operate when it opens Oct. 7, as it did in previous shutdowns.)

Department of Treasury: 80 percent of the 112,461 employees will be sent home. (Those sending out Social Security checks would stay; IRS employees overseeing audits would go home.)

Department of Transportation: 33 percent of the 55,468 employees will get sent home. (Air-traffic controllers will stay on; most airport inspections will cease.)

Department of Veterans Affairs: 4 percent of the 332,025 employees would go home. (Hospital workers will stay; some workers in charge of processing benefits will go home.)

A much, much more detailed list can be found in the agency contingency plans prepared here.

Do "non-essential employees" who get sent home ever get paid?

The big question. (AP)

That's unclear, as my colleague Lisa Rein has reported. On the first day of the shutdown, these employees do have to come to their offices to secure their files, set up auto-reply messages, and make preparations necessary to halt their programs.

The last time this happened, Congress later agreed to pay these employees retroactively when the government reopened. But that's completely up to Congress.

Is the government even prepared for a shutdown?

This is honestly the best stock art we've got to indicate the possibility of confusion and chaos. (Bigstock)

Maybe? As mentioned before, the Office of Management and Budget has asked federal agencies to develop contingency plans for a shutdown. But chaos is always possible. Back during the 1995 shutdown, the Social Security Administration initially sent home far too many workers and had to recall 50,000 of them after three days in order to carry out its legal duties.

Which parts of the economy would be most affected by a shutdown?

A few points:

-- The local economy around Washington, D.C. is expected to lose some $200 million in economic activity for each day that the government is shut down.

-- Economist Mark Zandi has estimated that a short government shutdown, which would send more than 800,000 federal workers home, could shave about 0.3 percentage points off economic growth in the fourth quarter of 2013 (though the economy would likely bounce back in the following quarter). A more extended shutdown could do even more damage.

-- Alternatively, we can look at what happened back in 1995 and 1996, the last two times the federal government actually shut down for a few weeks. In a research note earlier this month, Chris Krueger of Guggenheim Partners passed along some thoughts about the possible economic impacts of a shutdown in a few areas:

Tourism: U.S. tourist industries and airlines reportedly sustained millions of dollars in losses during the 1995 and 1996 shutdowns, in part because so many parks and museums were shutting down, turning away 7 million visitors in all.

Federal contractors: Of the $18 billion in federal contracts in the D.C. area back in 1995-1996, about one-fifth, or $3.7 billion, were put on hold during that era's shutdown. Employees of contractors were reportedly furloughed without pay.

The effects would be considerably larger today, given that the number of private contractors has swelled over the past two decades. In Fairfax County, Virginia, alone there are currently 4,100 contractors that bring in about $26 billion per year. It's still unclear exactly how many of those contracts would be affected.

Energy: The Department of Interior would temporarily stop reviewing permits for onshore oil and gas drilling as well as applications for renewable energy projects on public land. (The Department of Energy can keep processing applications for liquefied natural gas exports for the time being, though it's not clear how long that funding will last.)

Pharma and biotech: This one's harder to game out. The Food and Drug Administration didn't have to shut down in 1995 and 1996 because it was already funded. This time around, however, the FDA won't be spared, and the review process for new drugs is likely to get bogged down. The shutdown could also put a cramp on the grant process from the National Institutes of Health. "If prolonged," Krueger writes, "that could negatively impact life sciences/diagnostics companies.

Would a government shutdown stop Obamacare from happening?

(Jessica Rinaldi/Reuters)

No. As Sarah Kliff has explained, the key parts of Obamacare rely on mandatory spending that isn't affected by a shutdown. "That includes the new online marketplaces, known as exchanges, where uninsured people will be able to shop for coverage. The Medicaid expansion is funded with mandatory funding, as are the billions in federal tax credits to help with purchasing coverage."

That means uninsured Americans will be able to start shopping for plans when the exchanges launch Oct. 1, although there are likely to be some glitches.

How do you end a government shutdown?

Congress needs to pass a bill (or bills) to fund the government, and the White House has to sign them. They can do this at any time. Or they can sit at home and keep the government closed. Nothing requires them to do anything. It depends what sort of political pressure they're facing.

How often has the government shut down before?

Since 1976, there have been 17 different government shutdowns. The longest came in 1995-'96 and lasted 21 days, as Bill Clinton wrangled with congressional Republicans over budget matters.

But there were also six shutdowns in the 1970s, all lasting longer than eight days, and there was even a one-day shutdown in 1982 when Congress couldn't agree on funding for Nicaraguan Contras.

Is a government shutdown the same thing as breaching the debt ceiling?

Nope! Different type of crisis. In a government shutdown, the federal government is not allowed to make any new spending commitments (save for all the exceptions noted above).

By contrast, if we hit the debt-ceiling then the Treasury Department won't be able to borrow money to pay for spending that Congress has already approved. In that case, either Congress will have to lift the debt ceiling or the federal government will have to default on some of its bills, possibly including payments to bondholders or Social Security payouts. That could trigger big disruptions in the financial markets — or a long-term rise in borrowing costs.

The Bipartisan Policy Center estimates that we're on pace to breach the debt ceiling sometime between Oct. 18 and Nov. 5. So if a government shutdown isn't thrilling enough for you, good news: There's another fiscal crisis just around the corner.

Further reading on the shutdown: 

--VIDEO: Decoding the jargon of a government shutdown.

--A detailed look at how each agency would be affected by a shutdown.

--Don’t forget what the shutdown is really about.

--The nine most painful impacts of a government shutdown.

--Congress still gets paid during a shutdown, while staffers don’t. Here’s why.

--Federal workers who check their e-mail during a shutdown will be breaking the law

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