Is the U.S. government going to shutdown on March 4th, 2011? Possibly. The current temporary funding extension expires on that day. Speaker of the House John Boehner has pledged that the Republicans in the House will not pass another temporary funding extension that does not include “deep” cuts. Barack Obama has pledged that he will veto the 61 billion dollars of budget cuts that the House of Representatives has just passed. So now Boehner and Obama are playing a really bizarre game of chicken, and if neither of them blinks the U.S. government will shut down on March 4th. So what will that mean? Well, in a “government shutdown”, the entire government does not actually shut down. Rather, only “essential personnel” are kept on during a shutdown and only “essential services” are provided. Barack Obama would keep showing up at the White House and the U.S. military would continue to do their thing. But it would cause a temporary disruption to a lot of government activities that people normally rely on. (Read More...)