US Federal Government Shutdown Costs Over $3.5 Billion

The US Federal Goverment shutdown has cost more than $3.5 billion, according to a new visualisation from Outline.com.

The US government entered the shutdown on October 1st, after Congress failed to enact regular appropriations or a continuing resolution for the 2014 fiscal year. A ‘funding gap’ was created when the House of Representatives and the US Sentate failed to agree to a compromise continuing resolution, with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (more commonly known as Obamacare) at the heart of the conflict.

Since the start of the shutdown, many of the US public services and almost all national parks and landmarks have stopped operating, although today it was reported that the Grand Canyon, Mount Rushmore and the Statue of Liberty would reopen after State governors reached agreements with the federal government.

The following simple but striking visualisation from Outline.com charts the length of time since the shutdown started and the amount it has cost in realtime, making for some shocking viewing (click the image to see the real-time version):