The government wants its money back.

Natalie Waits

Here’s your unemployment check.  Now pay it back.

CNN Money

Annalyn Kurtz

October 18, 2013

                Due to the government shut down thousands of government employees were left jobless, bringing in no sort of income.  How do you support a family when you aren’t making any money? Thousands of those government employees filed for unemployment benefits for those weeks they were left without pay.  During the first week of the government shut down, seventy thousand federal employees filed for unemployment benefits.  With a total of 20,000 claims in Maryland, 16,000 claims in Washington D.C., 7,600 claims in Pennsylvania, and 6,000 claims in Virginia there are still claims to be processed  even after the government has reopened.

                So how much money do the once unemployed government workers need to give back?  Why should they have to give back any of it?  After all, it was the government’s mistake.  It’s unclear just how much money was overpaid.  Since then, the DC Department of Employment Services has instructed the bank to cancel the transactions that have not gone through yet.  As of now,  the DC Department of Employments Services paid $500,000, a total of 1,700 payments.  “If they have not actually taken any money out, we will then send them a notice and reverse the payment,” said Lisa Mallory, directory of the agency.  “If they have accessed the funds already, we will tell them the amount that needs to be repaid.”  They will have 60 days to repay the money without interest, but some states were able to avoid the overpayment problem with just luck. 

                This isn’t right in my opinion.  The DC Department of Employment Services made a mistake, they can’t just make all those people pay back all of the money.  Pennsylvania has a waiting period before the checks go out, which in this case was October 25^th, and since the government opened back up before that they don’t have to pay overpayment fees.  Not everyone is as lucky as Pennsylvania.  This is not the first time the unemployed workers have had to pay back the money they received from the DC Department of Employment Services, during the government shutdowns of 1995 and 1996 this problem occurred as well.  They claim that these payments that needed to be returned are minimal, but what about the employees with families that needed that extra money? What are they going to do?

Is the government shutdown doing more harm than good?

Natalie Waits

CNN Money

“Stock Markets await U.S debt, shutdown solution”

By: Gregory Wallace

Stock markets await U.S debt, shutdown and solution

                As stock markets wait for their solution from Washington the fact that it is week 2 of the government shut down is not helping.  October 17^th in the deadline that Jack Lew (Treasury Secretary) warned could bring a U.S default.  Last week, markets soared on the hopes of a potential deal to avoid the debt ceiling and reopen the partially-shuttered federal government.  The government shut down is affecting the stocks and our debt rate.  It’s not just the U.S markets that are watching this closely either.  International Monetay Fund head reported in an interview with CNN that the government shut down will affect banks worldwide. 

                The Dow gained 1% last week, they got a 320-point jump on Thursday, the index’s largest point gain since December of 2011.  The S&P 500 also gained close to 1%, while the Nasdaq slipped a little.  As stated in the opening paragraph, this government shut down is going to affect banks worldwide.  “They are very anxious to see this crisis resolved, because they know it’s going to impact their economy.”  Those words were spoken by International Monetary Fund head Christine Lagarde.  I had no idea that this government could affect other things worldwide.  This government shut down just is not helping anybody.  I saw the saddest picture on the internet of a kid dresses up and wanting to go to the zoo, but could not because of the government shut down.  This needs to end soon.              

                It is as simple as this Record profits? Stock slides.  Loss? Stock up.  This is what people pay close attention to but have not been able to due to the government shut down causing the report not to be created.  The stocks and other banks worldwide are being affected by this shutdown, so why are we doing it? Is it going to do us more harm than good?

Jobs Report held hostage

Government Postpones Jobs Report Amid Shut Down

by: Annayln Kurtz

October 3, 2013

CNN Money

                We all know the government shut down, it’s not the elephant in the room anymore, since then we’ve had slight changes in the way things work.  For example, at school the lunches are free, the lunch ladies say it’s because of the government shutdown, but to me this makes sense but my next example doesn’t.  Last week I went to the new vending machine, I punched in the number and I received my drink for free, I asked and they said it was cause of the government shut down.  Now why are the vending machines free?

                The article I read was about the government shut down and the jobs report.  The article was called “Government postpones jobs report amid shutdown” by Annalyn Kurtz on October 3, 2013 through CNN Money. 

                The government announced that they were going to release the jobs report on Friday, October 4 and confirmed that on Thursday, but it never happened.  People who are looking for jobs read this report religiously to see if they can get a job, but they didn’t.  Citing a "lapse in funding" amid the government shutdown, Department of Labor spokesman Stephan Barr said the report has not yet been rescheduled for release at a later date.  The jobs report has been delayed only once before, during the government shutdown of 1996.  Independent economists were expecting the new data to show the unemployment rate remained at 7.3% in September. They were also predicting the economy added 183,000 jobs last month, up slightly from 169,000 jobs in August.  The report was very important this month because the Federal Reserve monitors this data to decide when to slow its stimulus program.

                The bureau claims that due to the shutdown, they don’t have the man power to compile this report, but what about all the people who don’t have jobs? What are they going to do?  Sit and wait?  I think that even though we are having a government shutdown they should still send out the report, they promised the people this every month and that is what they should get. 

                I just hope this government shutdown doesn’t last too long and that the people of America get their jobs report.  I personally don't get why we are having a government shutdown and don't think we should have one.