Puerto Rico is.
Puerto Rico’s government shut down Monday after the U.S. commonwealth ran out of money to pay 100,000 public employees, temporarily throwing them out of work.
About 500,000 students are out of school as the shutdown left 40,000 teachers idle. Forty-three government agencies and all 1,600 public schools on the island were closed.
The closure comes after the legislature and the governor failed to reach a last-minute deal to address the government’s $740-million budget shortfall. The legislature and the governor have been unable to agree on a budget since 2004 and debts continue to pile up.
I remember that nothing terrible happened when the U.S. government shut down. The only unfortunate thing I see here is that Puerto Rican politicians aren’t debating about how to cut spending, but over how high their new sales tax will be.