On October 1, we are celebrating the National Day, but the U.S. government has stopped again seven years later.The world's largest economy, even the government has collapsed?

It¡¯s not exactly what you think, let¡¯s talk about it.

The first thing to explain is that the U.S. government has stopped, not to say that all public officials are out of work, but only "unnecessary departments" need to close, such as national parks, museums, research funding institutions, etc. For example, this time, the social media of the embassy in China has been forced to stop, and the Statue of Liberty torch is facing the possibility of extinguishing.

As for "necessary departments" such as the military, prisons, and the FBI, they still have to go to work as usual. Different from usual times, during the shutdown, these working staff may need to work without pay. This part of the salary will not be refunded until the lockout ends.

Okay, let¡¯s talk next, why does the U.S. federal government stop?

We should all have heard when we were in school that the U.S. political system is a three-power separation system. Specifically, Congress exercises legislative power, the president and his government exercises executive power, and the courts exercise judicial power.

In 1976, the United States began to implement the congressional budget system, requiring the federal government's money to be allocated by Congress. Specifically, at the beginning of each fiscal year (usually October 1st of each year), the executive branch led by the president proposes the budget for the next fiscal year, which is examined, discussed and revised by the House of Representatives and the Senate of Congress, and makes a final decision on September 30th of the following year.

Under this system, once the President and Congress fail to negotiate, the relevant funds may not be available, and even the federal government's money will be spent.

No money what?

Close the door and wait for the money!

Therefore, there was a situation in which the federal government was forced to temporarily shut down, commonly referred to as a shutdown, also known as the US government shutdown crisis.

The reason is that the United States is currently a two-party system, and if there are too many people in Congress who are different from the president's parties, it is possible to oppose some of the president's provisions so that they cannot be discussed.

It is common for the two parties in the United States to quarrel, so it is normal for Congress to fail to reach an agreed budget plan. Generally speaking, the United States has another trick, that is, the temporary appropriation bill, which temporarily takes some money to maintain the operation of relevant departments according to the level of the previous fiscal year, but the duration is only a few weeks or months. During this period, Congress will continue to discuss new plans. If it doesn't work, then continue to use the temporary appropriation bill or stop it.

In fact, the US government shutdown is not the first time. Moreover, about the US government shutdown, different people have different definitions, so there is a different number of times in history. Currently it is widely believed that the first shutdown in history occurred in 1976, that is, the United States just started to implement the Congressional budget system, and there was a shutdown.

So far, there have been 21 incidents in the United States. The longest one was the last time, which started in December 2018 for 35 days. The president at that time, coincidentally, was also Trump.

However, Trump is not the president with the most closures, and this "record" is still maintained by Reagan. During his eight years in office, the U.S. federal government "closed" eight times, lasting a total of 14 days. The most outrageous one was from September 30 to October 2, 1982, when he invited members of Congress to a barbecue at the White House and missed the final time to reach a budget (of course, this is not the root cause, which is an interesting anecdotal saying).

So, what is the reason for this shutdown?

In fact, the fundamental reason for the shutdown is not to say much, but the system base mentioned above, and the status quo of the struggle between the two parties.

As for the specific reasons, it is quite complicated to say, including medical insurance subsidies, foreign aid, immigration law enforcement funds and other matters. Since the beginning of this year, there has been a constant quarrel within the U.S. Congress. The quarrel lasted until September, and everyone found that it was the deadline again, so they had to come up with the "life renewal pill"-the temporary appropriation bill.

Medical subsidies are the main contradiction in this round of budget. Even for the sake of the temporary appropriations bill, Republicans and Democrats are still unwilling to give in at all. In addition, in late September, the U.S. Congress adjourned frequently, making progress extremely slow. It can be said that this shutdown has long been expected, and many departments have made preparations in advance.

A temporary shutdown of a business will have a huge economic impact, let alone the government of a country. even if the shutdown is just ¡°unnecessary sector¡±, the impact of the shutdown on the United States is extremely significant.

As an example, one-quarter of the federal government agencies were forced to shut down, affecting and even spreading to several important departments such as the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, the Department of Agriculture, and 800,000 federal government employees were forced to work unpaid or forced leave.

The effects of the U.S. government shutdown can affect every corner and every aspect of the country. From transport to healthcare, from procedures approval to financial subsidies, can be forced to interrupt.

Goldman Sachs has estimated that every week the U.S. government shuts down will cause the country's economic growth to drop by about 0.15 percentage points. Given that the private sector would also be affected accordingly, this figure could be on the order of 0.2 percentage points.

But for the president, sometimes a government shutdown is instead a ¡°weapon¡± he can use to put pressure on Congress to compromise; during the shutdown, a president who is restless can let go of some decisions.

This time, for example, on the first day of the shutdown, Trump used the shutdown opportunity to freeze $26 billion in federal funds for the ¡°pro-democratic state.¡±

Judging from the past situation, this shutdown will not last for an ridiculously long period of time, and it is very likely that relevant departments will be able to get back to operation through emergency temporary appropriations. However, by the time the federal government "reopens", I am afraid the situation will be very different from before the shutdown.