Credit Histories

Today is the day that the workers who are either idled or forced to work without pay, miss the first paycheck.

Up to now it really has been more academic, because even if you live paycheck to paycheck, that's only a problem when you don't get one.

Today is that day.

It will be different for everyone impacted but I imagine it will have common themes.

Bills due for the first half of January don't have the expected back deposit to pay them.

Some will have enough savings, others might get short term loans, others who are enrolled in automatic payments may or may not have turned them off.

The credit card bills from Christmas are likely going to get the minimum payments so interest will accumulate.

Some payments will simply not be made, causing a black mark on credit histories that will remain for quite a while.

Even considering that at some point the back pay will show up for most of the employees (some wont because of employment situations) you have to deal with the bills now.  Also, it isn't looking good for the next round of bills.

Add to that the people who work with these federal agencies who may also have been furloughed (and who generally won't get back pay) and you have managed to disrupt well over a million workers and their families.

You have to consider that the economies where they live are also impacted as they aren't spending as much as they normally would.

Things like this have happened before, in labor disputes, company bankruptcies, etc. It is always painful for those involved.

The issue here is why?  Most of them work for agencies with no involvement in immigrations.

It really is the same as a terrorist holding innocent people hostage to get something they want.

In this case the people actually work for the president in the executive branch.

Sort of ironic.