* Op-Ed
Everyone calm down.
WASHINGTON — From an economic perspective, the shutdown of 2013 led to a GDP decrease of 0.25%. It’s true that hundreds of thousands of federal employees received no pay, or late pay as a result of the previous shutdown, that inconvenience merely impacted their discretionary spending. While contracted employees may not be impacted, the ability of the government to enter into new contracts, the execution of existing contracts may be impacted, and could lead to increased costs for follow-on research and development type efforts.
Tourism related industries are affected by the shutdown, as national parks closed, museums gift shops sat empty, and there were additional costs labeled as “lost productivity.”
But for the most part, a short shutdown would have minimal impact for most Americans, at least in the immediate term.