Jill on Money - The Government Shutdown

What are the direct and indirect financial consequences of a government shutdown? CBS News Business Analyst and Host of Jill on Money Jill Schlesinger joins us with some answers. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, where's this partial government shutdown thing going to hate
you in the wallet or the pocketbook or the purse.
To bring everybody into the conversation. This is West Michigan's
Morning News. Steve, Kelly, Brat Pikita, Jill Selesterer, CBS News
business analyst and host of Jill on Money. I'm the liveline.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Thanks for doing this, Jill, Thanks for having me, my friend.

Speaker 1 (00:19):
We've talked about these over the years. Since nineteen ninety six,
there have been twenty shutdowns. I love the work that
you do, the stats that you bring to this program.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Nineteen seventy six. I mean, we just haven't actually twenty
years there, but that's a lot of shutdowns for sure.

Speaker 1 (00:33):
I wrote ten seventy six in the rundown for today's show,
So I'm welcome.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
Since I remember those years, you and I both, I'm
sure that we could recount how many shutdowns occurred. Then
this is going to be a tough one for I
just feel so bad for these workers. I hear from
them on the podcast on the radio show all the time,
and I was hearing about, you know, the dose cuts,
which don't forget about that these people went into civil service,

(01:03):
probably because they were like good people and they thought
that this was a nice way to serve make some
money and like not high turnover in government working jobs.
Oh my gosh, what a year they've had. And so
if you are impacted by this, I mean, I guess
the good news is that you will eventually get your
back pay. The bad news is that in the interim

(01:23):
you're going to feel a real crunch. And by the way,
there are a lot of people who are government contractors.
There are people who might be maybe they have businesses
that serve government workers. They're going to be impacted and
those people will not be getting their back pay. So
there's a human impact of this set is pretty dramatic.

Speaker 1 (01:45):
What about unemployment do they qualify for that?

Speaker 2 (01:49):
It is so weird because before the shutdown I went
into this program. This was like one of those rabbit
holes I went down, which is called the Unemployment Compensation
Program for Federal Employees. You see FE Now, this is
sort of a parallel unemployment program for federal workers. It's

(02:09):
administered by state unemployment insurance agencies. So in your case,
you would go to the state of Michigan and see
if you are eligible. But that actual website, the uc
FE website right now is down because there's no one
to actually operate it. So, like many federal government websites, down,
no information except to say government's closed. Check back later.

Speaker 1 (02:31):
Oh no, So, Jill, what do you recommend then? If
you're a federal worker, like you said, you hear from
a lot of them and they don't know how long
this is going to last with their pay I mean,
do you use a credit card? Do you use your
cash on hand? Is this a safety net situation?

Speaker 2 (02:44):
Or you know, it's so funny. Somebody actually came, you know,
came to me and said, you know, I'm going to
miss my first paycheck at the end of this week.
They'll miss their first paycheck. And they're like, but I
have a big bill that's coming due and I don't
know what to do. I'll put on my credit card. Well,
do you have an emergency reserve fund? You have a
savings kind yeah, but I don't want to use it.
I'm well, this is an emergency. This is actually the

(03:06):
time to use it. So let me declare the emergency
for everybody. If you have an emergency reserve fund, this
is it time to spend it. If you don't and
a lot of people don't. By the way, maybe instead
of a credit card, I mean, you could do a
credit card. It's pretty risky because you know how credit
cards are. It's like so expensive, and if the shutdown
lasts a longer time, it's tough to pay it back.

(03:27):
If you're lucky enough to own a house, a lot
of people who are government workers, they may own homes
from way back, you can use a line of credit
on your house and pay that off immediately when you
get your money back. You could potentially take a loan
against your retirement account. That's a possibility. I mean, look,
if you have to, you've got to feed your family,
and there's no choice but a credit card. Sure. But

(03:48):
the other piece of this is when you owe people money,
whether it's a landlord, a mortgage service, or anybody, just
be out front and say, I am a federal worker,
I am impacted by this, I am going to be
late for missapayment. Let them know, don't hide, because they'll
find you better for you to get out in front
of it.

Speaker 1 (04:07):
And is Jill Slessingers, CBS News Business analyst, host of
Jill on Money, Thank you

Speaker 2 (04:12):
Thanks for having me