In normal countries if a budget can’t be decided on, the government collapses and an election is held. In the US, they have indefinite 6 month extensions where they end up not paying government employees every 6 months for a month.
The whole country is broken.
Christ, if anyone in the public sector went a month without pay over here the unions would be rioting in the streets. It just wouldn’t happen.
Come to think of it, regardless of whether a budget passes or not, I suspect the government would still be legally bound to pay wages. I don’t know for sure though cos I can’t remember it ever happening.
Learned about that from John Oliver. How the hell the unions have just quietly sat on that for 40 years as if they didn’t get their legs knocked from under there is beyond me.
In parliamentary democracies, it defaults to the status quo. Basically last year’s budget, plus that changes that it entailed. Taxes are still coming in, so there is no reason to stop money from going to places it needs to go and the difference between balance is called a deficit. Belgium could not form a government for 1-2 years rcently and ran through this scenario.
Its amazing that not only did the US never plan for this scenario but they’ve never changed it since. How do you convince someone to work for you when they might only get paid for 10 months a year?
And that downtime won’t be good for productivity either.
In normal countries if a budget can’t be decided on, the government collapses and an election is held. In the US, they have indefinite 6 month extensions where they end up not paying government employees every 6 months for a month. The whole country is broken.
Christ, if anyone in the public sector went a month without pay over here the unions would be rioting in the streets. It just wouldn’t happen.
Come to think of it, regardless of whether a budget passes or not, I suspect the government would still be legally bound to pay wages. I don’t know for sure though cos I can’t remember it ever happening.
It’s “illegal” for public unions to strike here.
Reagan famously fired all air traffic control workers because they went on strike.
Learned about that from John Oliver. How the hell the unions have just quietly sat on that for 40 years as if they didn’t get their legs knocked from under there is beyond me.
In parliamentary democracies, it defaults to the status quo. Basically last year’s budget, plus that changes that it entailed. Taxes are still coming in, so there is no reason to stop money from going to places it needs to go and the difference between balance is called a deficit. Belgium could not form a government for 1-2 years rcently and ran through this scenario.
Its amazing that not only did the US never plan for this scenario but they’ve never changed it since. How do you convince someone to work for you when they might only get paid for 10 months a year?
And that downtime won’t be good for productivity either.
For parliamentary democracies the budget is the big point of contention. Most votes of no confidence happen because a failed budget proposal.