Rep. Moran: Shutdown Will Seriously Harm Local Economy

Republicans and their Tea Party allies can applaud a government shutdown and think it’s a fun way to push their extreme ideology, but in the end, a lot of people are going to get hurt by their irresponsibility. Over at ArlNow, Rep. Jim Moran explains how a Teapublican government shutdown will harm northern Virginia:

…A shutdown could last several weeks and have a “severe impact” on the local economy, Moran warned.

“This is very, very, serious,” Moran said. “Federal employees need to understand that this is not 1995, when we closed down… and [employees] were fully reimbursed.”

“About a million federal employees will not be working, and it is highly unlikely they will ever be reimbursed,” Moran continued. “Not only is this going to hurt the overall economy in the metropolitan Washington area that I represent, but it is going to have a very severe impact on employee’s abilities to make their mortgage payments, their car payments, etc.”

“Every private sector element in my district’s economy is going to be adversely affected,” Moran added.

So there you have it; Republicans playing Russian Roulette with the country’s finances, with the nation’s fragile economic recovery, and with the lives (and finances) of hundreds of thousands of federal workers and their families. They must be so proud of themselves, especially when Democrats have already agreed to their initial (prior to a Tea Party rebellion) target for cuts to the budget in the current fiscal year. Vandals? Huns? Visigoths? What’s the appropriate historical analogue to today’s Republican Party?

P.S. I presume that Bob McDonnell is busy urging his Republican Party colleagues in Congress not to harm Virginia’s economy? Right?!?

UPDATE: Rep. Moran will be holding an emergency meeting from 7:30 to 9:30 pm at Francis C Hammond Middle School in Alexandria (4646 Seminary Road).

UPDATE #2: Of course, House Republicans will make sure that THEY get paid! Unbelievable. Total hypocrisy.