Does it mean US troops will be withdrawn from foreign lands?
Will flights grind to a halt as no one can pass through TSA?
Will America be surveillance free as the NSA shuts down?
Or is the extent of the shutdown that tours of the whitehouse won't be given?
"Due to staffing reductions resulting from sequestration, we regret to inform you that WhiteHouse Tours will be canceled effective Saturday, March 9, 2013 until further notice."†
The above action was fall-out from an earlier budgetary conflict, in which Republicans allowed sequestration (an across-the-board 10% cut in discretionary spending) to take effect, pursuant to the Budget Control Act of 2011. Sequestration was a poison-pill invented by the President and inserted into the BCA in the belief that the Republicans would never let it go into effect because of its effect on military spending. Well, they did.
No, but it does mean that they needed to pass / sign H.R. 3210 to make sure the troops still get paid.
In the keeping in perspective view, Speaker Tip O'Neil shut down the government 12 different times and once was over the Fairness Doctrine. We survived and the memory seems to fade.