Mr. Gates is already rich and insulated from a likely downturn. It's important to balance the welfare of Americans with their financial welfare, and we can't just borrow our way out of the economic fallout that a months-long shutdown would produce.

Edit: ITT people saying I want to sacrifice 2 million for the economy. I didn't say remove all preventative measures, I said we need to balance. I'd guess this looks something like a production possibilities frontier graph: we'll be sacrificing a lot of economy to get a little more health past a certain point, and vice-versa. It's the job of lawmen to strike that balance.