Story highlights
One week into the shutdown, there's little progress on what's blocking a deal
With little progress on the shutdown, the debt ceiling debate picks up pace
A Moody's analyst says a monthlong shutdown could deal the economy a $50 billion blow
With a lot of facts and figures thrown around the government shutdown and the looming debt ceiling deadline, here are the ones you need to know.
1 – Week of shutdown: Midnight marked one week since partisan impasse caused a partial government shutdown. House Speaker John Boehner and President Barack Obama aren’t speaking to each other – Obama called Boehner on Tuesday but a Boehner spokesman characterized it as more of the same.
They’ve been trading shots through interviews and via spokesmen and over Twitter. Obama takes the bully pulpit of a presidential news conference on Tuesday afternoon.
Boehner said Sunday he doesn’t have the votes in his caucus to pass a “clean” government funding bill that enshrines spending cuts from earlier this year but leaves Obacamare alone. Appearing at the Federal Emergency Management Agency on Monday – an agency hit hard by furloughs – Obama dared Boehner to prove it and hold a vote.
218 – The number of members of Congress – 200 Democrats and 18 Republicans – CNN has identified who have said (and still say) they would vote for a “clean” government funding bill. That’s one more vote than would be needed to pass the funding bill. Of course, if Boehner brought a “clean CR” to the floor, there’s a good chance more Republicans would join in.
Votes are there to break deadlock, but not the will
But Republicans - even among those who have said publicly they’d vote for a clean CR, declined an opportunity in a procedural vote Monday night to break with their party on the funding issue.
9 – Days to debt ceiling: It seemed there could be one potential opening for discussion on the debt ceiling when a White House economic adviser subtly suggested Monday that Congress could determine how long a debt ceiling increase would last.
As the clock ticks up on the length of the shutdown and down toward the possible debt ceiling “x date” of October 17, the issues of agreeing how to fund the government and enabling the administration to borrow money to do it have become fused.
No wonder Americans are angry. According to a CNN / ORC poll out Monday …
63 -Percent angry at the Republicans
57 Percent angry at Democrats
53 – Percent angry at President Obama, too
$50 billion – CNN Money reports that if the weeklong partial shutdown stretches to a month, it would mean a $50 billion blow to the U.S. economy. That estimate is actually $5 billion lower than the initial estimate of Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody’s Analytics. He lowered his forecast after the Defense Department recalled nearly half of 800,000 federal employees furloughed last week, and it appeared Congress would quickly approve a measure to pay furloughed workers retroactively.
136 points – Dow drop on Monday.
483,000 – Furloughed workers: CNN’s official estimate of furloughs dropped by nearly half on Monday after Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced over the weekend that most of the furloughed civilians at the Defense Department would be called back to work. Furloughs at the Pentagon accounted for a huge percentage of government workers forced to stay home because of the shutdown. That means just 14% of federal workers are now listed as furloughed.
Hagel’s announcement also spared some defense contractors. Thousands of employees at plants run by UTC and Sikorsky would have been furloughed starting Monday, but the action was called off when it became clear almost the entire defense apparatus would function through shutdown.
A bill to guarantee back pay for the furloughed could change perception. Sure it’d be tough for them to make mortgage payments and buy groceries, but if the bill gets to Obama, as it is expected, the furlough suddenly becomes something of a paid vacation.
Rep. Mark Sanford – yes, that Mark Sanford – has decided as a result to recall all the furloughed workers in his office.
98,000-plus – Obamacare accounts created: Disagreement over Obamacare caused the shutdown. And the glitch-plagued open enrollment continues even as large portions of the federal government stayed shut. The federal government still has not released figures on the number of people who have signed up for new insurance policies in the 36 states where HHS is organizing sign-ups through the healthcare.gov website. But To get a read on actual sign-up efforts, CNN has been surveying the 14 states, and the District of Columbia, which are operating their own insurance marketplaces.
As of 3 p.m. ET Monday, at least 95,801 people had created accounts allowing them to explore what coverage options are available to them. This is based on information provided by individual states who responded to CNN. Many more accounts have likely been created in the federally run exchanges and also via telephone and paper applications.
