10 ways a government shutdown will affect your daily life

By David Simpson and Saeed Ahmed, CNN

Democrats and Republicans were unable to resolve their differences over Obamacare and now the government is shut down.

The game is the same, but many of the players have changed. Congress and the president are facing off in another supreme spending showdown. If they don’t agree on a funding bill by the end of September 30, much of government will shutdown. This last happened in 2011, when Congress avoided a shutdown by passing a spending measure shortly after the midnight deadline hit. Who controls what happens this time? — From CNN Capitol Hill Reporter Lisa Desjardins. CNN’s Deirdre Walsh and Ted Barrett contributed to this report.

And at a time when the economy’s finally showing signs of life, that could be troubling.

According to the Congressional Research Service, the two previous shutdowns — in late 1995 and early 1996 — cost the country $1.4 billion.

But what will the shutdown mean for you? Will your daily life be affected?

(The answer’s yes, so keep reading.)

Here are 10 ways the government shutdown will affect you.

10. Vacation all I ever wanted: Need to get away? Well, you can’t. At least not to national parks. Or to national zoos. Or to national museums. They’ll be closed. That’s 368 National Park Service sites closed, millions of visitors turned away.

Were you thinking more along the lines of a trip to France? If you don’t already have a passport, you might have to bid that adieu — you might not get your blue book in time. The last time the government threw a hissy fit, 200,000 applications for passports went unprocessed. Tourism and airline revenues reeled.

But according to the State Department’s current shutdown plan, offices will remain open because they generate enough in fees to support their operation. Any offices located in a federal building affected by the shutdown, however, may not be able to open.

9. Holiday. Celebrate: Don’t go to work if you’re a federal employee. You’re on furlough. (Offer not valid for workers in “critical services,” such as air traffic controllers, hazardous waste handlers and food inspectors.)

Do take some time to celebrate. In previous shutdowns, everyone who stayed home was paid retroactively after peace returned to Washington.

8. I won’t back down: The men and women in uniform will stay on the job and be paid, according to legislation approved by Congress in the run-up to the shutdown.

Scenarios of the shutdown

7. If you drive a car, I’ll tax the street: You may be thinking, “No functioning government, no need to pay taxes.” Think again. The Man would continue to collect taxes. U.S. bonds would still be issued. And other essential banking functions will go on.

6. Wait a minute, Mr. Postman: You know that whole “Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night” thing? Apparently, the U.S. Postal Service works through shutdowns as well. Sorry, you won’t catch a break from the junk mail. But hey, you may already be a winner!

5. I want a new drug: Oh, the irony. The Republicans still want to defund, delay or otherwise chip away at Obamacare in exchange for funding the government. But the health care act at the center of this storm would continue its implementation process during a shutdown. That’s because its funds aren’t dependent on the congressional budget process.

Read the full article by David Simpson and Saeed Ahmed from CNN.