I've seen a number of news stories today, noting that shutting down government operations due to the blizzard in DC is costing us $100M per day in lost productivity. My initial thought was to wonder exactly what it is they produce that couldn't just as easily be found in a cow pasture for free. Anyway, I finally found an article in the WaPo that actually attempts to break down these figures: Washington Post Link Turns out, the number is based solely on the daily payroll cost of 270K employees. Further, the office responsible for the estimate says that it is "...woefully out of date and does not reflect emergency personnel, essential personnel, or teleworking employees and therefore overstates cost of government closure." Who woulda thought. From a taxpayer's perspective, I've gotta wonder about the relative costs/benefits of having these 270K folks come into work vs. staying home. :yelwink2:
We are getting off cheap. If Washington had remained open for business as usual they would have found ways to waste a lot more than $100 million a day. :dis:
