Surviving the Government Shutdown: Real Advice for People Who Are Scared or Struggling

Author of Be Ready for Anything and Bloom Where You’re Planted online course

In general, when the government shuts down, I post a few funny memes about how it’s the most boring apocalypse ever and my life goes on exactly as it has before. I’m not personally very affected by it and I think the government is far too large anyway. But, with the MSM proclaiming it doomsday, the emails I’ve received have shown that for a lot of people, a government shutdown is a cause for concern.

The longest our government has ever been shut down was 35 days. It actually went over the holidays, from 2018-into 2019. Previous to that, the longest shutdown was 21 days during the Clinton administration, in 1995.

As of the writing of this article, we’re on day 23 and there’s no end in sight.

Today will be the first missed paycheck for many government employees.

A few words about government shutdown theater.

The government deliberately makes a shutdown as painful as possible for us, the little guys. They have to do that, to prove to us that they’re “essential” to our existence. Otherwise, why would we continue paying the taxes that fund their salaries and cushy lifestyles?

You’ll see a lot of heartwrenching stories about children showing up to the Smithsonian only to find it closed and about trash piled up in our national parks. You’ll hear about government employees who cannot pay their bills and have to visit food banks to feed their families.

What you won’t hear about are tearful Senators and members of Congress who are being evicted because they cannot pay their mortgages. You won’t see those folks lined up at the food banks because – they still get paid. (Aside from a handful of Congress members who have eschewed a paycheck during the shutdown, anyway.) Perhaps if we made the people responsible for shutdowns suffer the consequences of their actions, our members of Congress would learn to get along.

The choices about what is essential are not made to make our lives any easier. Any hardships we may face are simply collateral damage that one political party will blame on the other political party.

So keep this in mind whenever you see the sad tales of government shutdown woe. Someone, somewhere, made the decision that this person’s hardship doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of them getting their own way.

Here’s who is affected.

Let’s look at who will really be affected by the government shutdown.

• Federal workers: Today is payday for them, but 1.4 million won’t be receiving a check. Panic is afoot in the greater DC area, as many of these workers live near the nation’s capital.
• SNAP recipients: 41.7 million low-income Americans rely on SNAP (food stamps) to feed their families. With the price of groceries right now, losing that assistance will create some very dire circumstances.
• Travelers: The TSA workers are federal and that entity has said that the shutdown my result in far longer security lines in airports. Air traffic controllers are also federal and deemed “essential” so they’ll be forced to work for free. 13,000 air traffic controllers and 50,000 TSA officers are working without pay this month. This has resulted in longer wait times, flight delays and cancellations, and many other inconveniences for travelers.
• Visitors to parks and museums: Imagine saving up for a vacation to Yellowstone or to DC to visit the Smithsonian. The moment arrives and you learn that everything you wanted to see is closed, due to the shutdown. While it’s not the end of the world, it’s certainly inconvenient for tourists.

Please note how the people who suffer the most are NOT the ones responsible for the current stress.  I assure you that any member of Congress who wants to fly somewhere will have no problem working around sluggish airport security.

Obviously, stories like this are pretty alarming to anyone with a pulse. I received a lot of emails citing the article above. People are really concerned and scared and this is truly part and parcel of the shutdown theater. They want you to feel scared and insecure without them.

The most common themes in my inbox

People are worried, and they have valid reasons to be concerned.

Here are some of the most common concerns I’ve gotten emails about, and advice about what you can do, to the best of my ability.

I’m a government employee and I can’t survive without a paycheck.

It’s got to be terrifying to think you have a stable job with a reliable employer and then suddenly, BOOM, you are without a paycheck. If you have an emergency fund, now is the time to crack into it.

If you do not have an emergency fund and you’ve been struggling a paycheck to paycheck lifestyle, things will be a lot tougher.

The first thing I suggest you do is to talk to anyone to whom you owe money: utility companies, mortgage companies, banks, credit card companies, etc., and let them know about your situation. Everyone knows what’s going on and these businesses may have some suggestions for you. Mortgage companies may be able to offer you a month of grace, credit card companies may make arrangements with you, etc.

If you have only a limited amount of money, you’re going to have to prioritize where you spend it. This will probably affect your credit negatively but there’s nothing that can be done about that. Keep a roof over your head, utilities on, food in the kitchen, and a car in your driveway if your job depends on it. Credit card debt should be the last thing you pay in a situation like this. Go read this article, How to Survive When You Can’t Pay Your Bills, for more detailed information and see my recommendations for people who won’t get their EBT money above for ideas on keeping your family fed.

I rely on EBT to feed my family and my payment may not be coming.

This is a terrible situation for millions of people who are aided by government assistance for food. Before we get a barrage of unsympathetic pseudo-Christians proclaiming how glad they are that “leeches will get cut off,” please remember that elderly people, disabled people, and children will be among the ones starving and get back on track here. Not everyone on assistance is taking advantage of the system.

If you are in this situation, you’re going to need to expect a very lean month. Hopefully, you have a few things kicking around your house like some canned goods, pasta, and beans. But if money has been tight for a long time, I know that you may not have much back-up food. Here’s an article to help you figure out what food to buy during a difficult month and it contains an offer for a free PDF book for those who need it.

Check out this book on a rock-bottom, dirt-cheap menu (with recipes) that will get you through it – and you can get it for as little as $1 if things are tight.

If you do not have any money to purchase the foods I recommended in the book, you may have to visit your local food bank. If family members ask how they can help, provide them with a list of the foods I mentioned above. Local charities and churches may also be able to offer some assistance.

Will I still get my social security or disability check if the government remains shut down?

Finally some good news – social security and disability payments WILL be made throughout the shutdown.

So, if you’re relying on these payments, everything should be just fine, at least for the next few months.

TSA workers are calling in sick – how easy will it be to slip in terrorists?

Interestingly enough, the TSA has never once, since its inception, directly stopped a terror attack.

In fact, when tested by Homeland Security, they failed at an epic rate of 95% to detect planted “terrorists” who sailed through the annoying process of removing their shoes and being patted down by Bubba-who-feels-important.

So Homeland Security officials looking to evaluate the agency had a clever idea: They pretended to be terrorists, and tried to smuggle guns and bombs onto planes 70 different times. And 67 of those times, the Red Team succeeded. Their weapons and bombs were not confiscated, despite the TSA’s lengthy screening process.  (source)

Here are a few more facts about the TSA and their rates of failure.

• The TSA has never caught a terrorist.
• When the TSA does catch something, like toy guns or bullets accidentally left in a bag, they crow publicly about it. Everything they do find is trumpted as a “good catch.”
• But they miss 95% of the dangerous items taken through the checkpoint. That wasn’t just a one-off anomaly, the number has been over 90% in tests for a decade. (Of course even if they did catch dangerous items, their air marshal program brings guns through the checkpoint for the terrorists.)

The TSA seems to be focused on water bottles and pocket knives. The only thing that the TSA “blue flu” will do during this shutdown is making the lives of travelers even more inconvenient. I don’t think that a lack of TSA makes us any less safe than we were before this shutdown.

And if we do see an attack on a plane during the shutdown? Well, my first thought would be to wonder whether the government really, really wanted to prove how necessary they are. It certainly wouldn’t be the first false flag in history.

The FDA and USDA aren’t inspecting food, and there are already so many recalls when they ARE working

Everyone knows we’ve seen a massive barrage of recalls in the American food supply over the past few years. It’s pretty scary when going to the grocery store makes you feel like you’re navigating restaurants in a third-world country.

So it isn’t an unreasonable concern that even more contaminated food might get missed and make it to the grocery store shelves.

There are a few things to remember with this. First of all, most recalls occur not due to a failed inspection, but due to consumer complaints to the manufacturer, who then issues the recall.

A food recall occurs when there is reason to believe that a food may cause consumers to become ill. A food manufacturer or distributor initiates the recall to take foods off the market. In some situations, food recalls are requested by government agencies (USDA or FDA).

To avoid potential dangers, it helps to know what things are more likely to be recalled.

In recent years, many recalls have been of foods that have been processed or handled excessively:

• Ground meats
• Breakfast cereal
• Pre-sliced fruits and vegetables
• Prewashed salad greens

Of course, the romaine lettuce recall was not processed at all, so there are always exceptions.

There’s no better time than this to start supporting your local farmers.

We survived for thousands of years without our food being inspected for us – but then our food wasn’t processed in plants and shipped across the globe.

My housing is paid for by HUD. Am I going to be evicted?

If your housing is paid for in part or in full by HUD, then rest assured knowing that at least for November, the payments will be made.

If it were to go on longer, remember that it wouldn’t make sense for landlords to begin evicting tenants whose rent is generally paid unless you’ve otherwise been a bad tenant. It’s possible that some landlords may try to pressure tenants with the threat of eviction to get them to pay some or all of their rent if the HUD payment does not arrive.

You need to understand the eviction process specific to your state.

Generally when a shutdown is over, the government will make good on any backpayments that were due during the shutdown.

Are you expecting civil unrest if EBT doesn’t pay out at the end of the month?

It seems like we’re always a country on the verge of civil unrest these days, and a sudden withdrawal of benefits could certainly upset people across the nation.

Will hordes of hungry people storm grocery stores across the country, Black Friday-style? It’s not impossible, but I think we’d be more likely to see large protests before that kind of thing occurs.

I could foresee more issues in cities or communities with a higher percentage of people receiving assistance.

If the situation persists for multiple months, however, then all bets are off. We’ll absolutely see an uptick in crime as people become more and more desperate. I certainly urge you to be prepared for the possibility if the shutdown continues to this point. This article discusses how to prepare for civil unrest.

Do you have concerns about the government shutdown?

If you’re affected by this shutdown, my feelings about the government theater aside, my heart goes out to you and I wish you the very best. I hope the suggestions I provided here are helpful.

Did I miss covering your specific concern about the shutdown? Have you been personally affected by this? Please share any questions or thoughts in the comments section below.