As the political division in Washington keeps the government closed, it’s possible to start quantifying the daily price of this failure. While the exact figures are complex, economists and budget analysts have estimated the cost of shutdowns, revealing a staggering amount of waste and lost productivity for every day the stalemate, which continued after Wednesday’s Senate votes, drags on.
The most direct cost is lost productivity from furloughed federal workers. While they eventually get back pay, the work they would have done during the shutdown is often lost forever. This can be valued in the hundreds of millions of dollars per day.
There is also a significant loss of government revenue. The closure of national parks means lost entrance fees. A halt in IRS operations can delay tax collection. These figures can also run into the tens of millions daily.
The broader economic impact, or the “ripple effect,” is even larger. The loss of spending by federal workers and contractors, the disruption to businesses that rely on government services, and the hit to consumer and business confidence all contribute to a daily drag on the national GDP. Past shutdowns have been estimated to cost the US economy over a billion dollars per week.
Beyond the financial numbers, there is the unquantifiable cost to the nation’s reputation and the morale of its public servants. While these don’t show up on a balance sheet, they are a real price the country pays for its political division. Each day, the bill for this shutdown gets higher.