If the new Federal budget is not in place by March 4, the Federal Government will have to close down.

Yes, there are people on both sides that will blame the other side. This is not the issue for this post.

What about the Federal Government employee who will be furloughed without a paycheck every 2 weeks? When you were starting out in your career, could you have gone for up to 6 or 8 weeks without a paycheck? This means mortgages can't be paid, insurance can't be paid, utilities can't be paid, etc.

This happened back in 1995 and Federal Government programs suffered such as timely payments of Social Security and Medicare payments. It also cost hundred of millions of dollars in paying the employees who were furloughed for back pay - and having done no work for that money. I was one of those but I had plenty to fall back on so I was not adversely affected. Should the government employee just forfeit the money or should he be paid like in 1995?

These "showdowns" do not have a happy ending for either party. No one wins. Blame will be shifted to the party you are not in.