Way To Go, House Republicans

The Des Moines Register points out ways Iowans were hurt by the House Republicans government shutdown:

One of the important take­aways from the government’s limited shutdown was this: While lots of people like to complain about the federal government, there is little agreement on what less government should look like.
Folks around Moville who suffered tornado damage recently were frustrated that the government representatives whose reports were needed for federal disaster assistance weren’t there when they were needed.
Some of the businesses in West Branch, home to the Herbert Hoover birthplace and presidential library, were frustrated that tourists stopped coming to the government attraction and their sales declined precipitously.
Scientists at the National Animal Disease Center in Ames, the U.S. government’s largest facility to track and deal with livestock diseases, were concerned that their long-term experiments were jeopardized because no one was tending their laboratories.
Officials at the University of Iowa began formulating contingency plans in case the shutdown continued and they had to end tens of millions of dollars in medical and scientific studies conducted there for the federal government.
In Des Moines, Gov. Terry Branstad’s staff was well aware that a prolonged shutdown had far-reaching implications for the state. Nearly every state agency relies to some extent on money from Washington. In fiscal year 2012, the cost of operating state government and programs that 3 million Iowans depend on was about $14.6 billion, with $6.5 billion of that coming from the federal government.
Without the federal government, Iowa would lose almost all its money for nursing home inspectors and services to foster care families. The state would have to find other ways to get food to seniors and low-income people. Needy college students would have to find other ways to pay for their schooling — or do without.
But that’s not all. There were delays in processing disability benefits, performing food safety inspections and investigating transportation accidents. Some businesses were unable to import and export goods. The nation’s king crab fishing fleet remained in port because there were no federal workers to set quotas for their catches.

There was some talk by Republicans that they might raise the debt ceiling for six weeks but leave the government shut down.  They are lucky that the Democrats didn't let them do that, because they would have looked pretty damn stupid as more and more people realized how they were negatively impacted by the shutdown.  Yes, a functioning society needs government, and Republicans would do well to remember that.