The government shutdown is over, President Trump signed the bill that the Senate and House passed yesterday.
The temporary measure allows for the government to operate until February 8th. UGA Professor Jeffrey Dorfman says lawmakers will likely come to a consensus.
"I mean the only stumbling blocks are sort of the peripheral details of a settlement on the Dreamers and how much extra money the Democrats are going to get to spend on social programs," he said. "The Republicans are going to get extra money for the military and the Democrats want some for their favorite ideas."
He explains why the shutdown was so unpopular with many Americans.
"Active duty military personnel were going without pay. And the Republicans offered six years of guaranteed funding for the Children's Health Insurance Program," said Dorfman. "So the Democrats chose to let 9 million children go potentially without health insurance, in exchange for trying to save 700,000 or 800,000 Dreamers."
Dorfman says while shutdowns are not popular, surprisingly, they don’t tend to have much influence on the economy.
"Government shutdowns have almost no economic impact. Because in the 30-odd times we've done this before, the government workers have always been given back pay at the end," said Dorfman. "There are some localized economic impacts. If you own a restaurant on Capitol Hill or near any federal government office building, then your business is hurt during a shutdown, and you don't ever get that money back."
