US GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN

Of course I am very naive and I don’t know anything about government, politics and finances etc. Please explain to me how a country goes into debt for trillions of dollars??????????????????????  

So many people will suffer if the government shuts down whatever that means. I wonder if the president and his staff etc will get paid????????????????????

 

I am so upset even though I am a Canadian but the US politics seems to affect all of us. I don’t understand why they are still powerful when they don’t have any money.


Maybe one of you can explain things to me in simple terms????

 

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September 30, 2013

The shutdown has nothing to do with the debt. Congress hasn’t passed a budget for the next fiscal year which means government services aren’t funded, which means they’re shut down. The President does still get paid, and there are a number of essential government services that are not shut down (for instance, Social Security will still be paid out). Congress actually hasn’t passed a budget in several years, but the government was able to keep on going with what is called a Continuing Resolution. Which I guess isn’t happening this time. Yep, we’re pretty awful. As far as the debt goes, government debt isn’t quite the same as personal debt. I don’t pretend to understand much of it but Wikipedia does: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_debt