The 2013 government shutdown took at least $24 billion out of our economy. But Fox Business host Charles Payne shrugged it off by saying, “The world doesn’t fall apart.”
As a guest on Fox News’ Your World program, Payne discussed with host Neil Cavuto the potential fallout for stocks as the government averted an immediate shutdown via a temporary spending measure that only goes through December 11. Payne disingenuously downplayed a shutdown’s effect:
Transcript via Media Matters (with our emphases):
PAYNE: I’ve lost track since 2001 how many continuing resolutions there have been, but we know that this is a Band-Aid ...that keeps being reapplied.
...So, and we’ve had 18 government shutdowns, and we’ve done OK. In fact, I think one of the messages from the last government shutdown was, the world doesn’t fall apart. In fact, Neil, I think people were shocked at how many, quote, “nonessential workers” there are in the government. What the heck? Why so many nonessentials? That beside the point, Wall Street does want to see clarity, any kind of clarity, out of Washington, D.C. It is just in a crazy place where nothing is getting done. And again, it gets back to a lack of leadership.
In reality, our economy took a huge hit from the last shutdown. From an October 17, 2013 article from ABC News:
The financial ratings agency Standard & Poor’s said Wednesday the shutdown “to date has taken $24 billion out of the economy,” equaling $1.5 billion dollars a day and “shaved at least 0.6 percent off annualized fourth-quarter 2013 GDP growth.”
… “The bottom line is the government shutdown has hurt the U.S. economy,” Standard & Poor’s said in a statement. “In September, we expected 3 percent annualized growth in the fourth quarter because we thought politicians would have learned from 2011 and taken steps to avoid things like a government shutdown and the possibility of a sovereign default. Since our forecast didn’t hold, we now have to lower our fourth-quarter growth estimate to closer to 2 percent.”
Moody’s Analytics reported a similar number Wednesday, saying by the end of the day the shutdown will cause a $23 billion hit to U.S. GDP or $1.4375 billion per day.
If this is what Payne, who hosts a Fox Business Network show called "Making Money,” thinks is insignificant, maybe he ought to be in another line of work. On the other hand, he’s perfect for Fox, where Republican politics trumps all.
Watch it below, from the September 30 Your World.