let's consider just one department, the U S Dept of Agriculture, where the Secretary Tom Vilsack has done what he can to try to keep programs going.
Let's start with the school lunch program: at the end of the month the schools will be relying on their own resources to fund the lunch and breakfast programs with the understanding that when and if the budget gets funded they will be reimbursed for the costs. But what if schools/states do not have the funds to step in? And what will be in the impact upon learning of kids who are hungry?
The WIC program will be out of money this month and if the debt ceiling is not raised SNAP will run out if money sometime in November. That may impact November benefits potentially but for sure would impact December benefits. The implications of this are profound.
Rental assistance has already been impacted. No new home loans, business loans, or farm loans are being processed. Farmers who had previous loans with the Department and have sold their crops can not get the checks for their crops cashed because the county offices for the Farm Service Agency are all closed.
The conservation folks at USDA can not help with the burial of the cattle that have died in the Dakotas that had an early unexpected snow storm.
All trade promotion has stopped which means out competitors are getting an opportunity to take market share away from us.
It is not just the budget and the debt ceiling, but USDA is also impacted by the Farm Bill programs expiring on October 1st as well.
Think of the scope of the problems, and of the suffering that is starting.
Point it out to the media.
Let all your acquaintances know by any means available.