What if they shut down the government and nobody noticed?

I’m writing this at about 11 pm, one hour or so from the deadline to shutdown the federal government. Seeing as how the senate has now left for the evening, I think it’s fair to say that the shutdown is on. Rather than hammering out a deal to continue funding the government, both parties spent the husk of their day trying to pin the impending shutdown on the opposition. Apparently Chuck Schumer and John Thune got a little salty with each other over a large poster board chart detailing certain aspects of the shutdown and voices were raised during a congressional hallway presser. If this is what passes for fight from Democratic leadership, I guess we’ll take it. Welcome to the resistance, Chuck.

As for the shutdown itself, the remaining 750,000 federal employees that didn’t get Eloned will be furloughed. Essential workers like air traffic controllers, mail carriers and the guy that grabs the Diet Coke when the president rings a little bell will remain on the job. Museums and National Parks will close, at least partially, Social Security checks will still go out and the military will remain on duty but won’t be paid until a deal is reached. The FDA will operate at about 1/3 its normal capacity, so enjoy the salmonella, and word from the CDC is that RFK has sent everyone home and declared himself king of the Petri dishes.

How long will the shutdown last? Who knows, apparently the Dems got some internal polling that in the event of a shutdown the public would most likely blame the party that controls all three branches of government and finally decided to boldly take a stand late in democracy’s 4th quarter. If Schumer and Jeffries found a spare backbone lying around the cloak room, we could be in for a long one.