The cost of a shutdown.

From Marketplace, I'm Sabri Beneshor, Infra-David Brancachio.

The federal government is sliding toward a shutdown.

Chances are dwindling that the house can pass funding bills in time to avoid it.

Yesterday, the handful of Republicans tanked passage of what would normally be an easy

to pass bill to fund the defense department.

So if it comes down to a shutdown, what can we expect the economic cost to be?

Marketplace's Novosafo has more.

There are hard numbers available on the costs of government shutdowns.

To the federal government, $4 billion dollars.

That's the estimated cost of the last three shutdowns, according to one Senate report.

Much of that money was back pay for furloughed federal employees.

The estimated impact on the economy is somewhere in the several billion dollars a week range.

A prolonged shutdown could delay the release of economic data, such as unemployment totals

and GDP estimates.

That would leave policymakers and analysts in the dark, just as the federal reserve

is trying to engineer a soft landing, lowering inflation, cooling the economy, but not so

much that it causes a recession.

Social security and Medicare benefits would continue, but much of the federal bureaucracy

would come to a halt.

For example, military members would have to work without pay and the small business administration

would have to pause loan approvals.

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