Yeah, I figured this would pop up, surprised it didn't come up sooner. I think the term "essential" probably should be replaced with "emergency/immediate need/safety" or some other term. Ok, let's follow Warrior's "dead wood" analogy and see what will happen if all the dead wood simply disappeared overnight.

No one to process AntiGov's SS claim when he decides to finally take it
No one to process Warrior's Medicare claims- I think that's mostly contracted out but fed contractors don't get paid in a shutdown either
No federal research of any kind (whether that's being done in house or selecting awardees of grants)- health, wildlife/fisheries, environment, earth sciences, etc
No one to operate or maintain national parks/monuments/historic sites/battlefields etc of any kind
No one to operate or maintain national wildlife refugees, national forests, national grasslands, etc
No one to operate/approve grazing or mineral leases on federal land
No one to determine & approve timber harvesting off of federal land (if they do much of that anymore)
No one to approve off-shore hydrocarbon extraction in national waters
No one to set inter-state hunting seasons, such as with waterfowl
No one to administer various agricultural and rural programs in all the counties of the U.S.
No one to process/issue U.S. passports (want to go to Canada on a hunting trip and don't have a passport already, tough ti**y)
No one to propose specs for new weapon systems for the military (not sure on that one--may be "essential")
No one to issue your mail-order bride a visa to come to the U.S.
etc, etc,, etc

But, hey, who's counting...

So the people working payroll are non-essential?

There are still taxes being taken out of my check... Are the people who process incoming revenue non-essential too?

Mike

They've probably been replaced by automation. If every citizen were compelled to go to the local tax house and pay in cash bi weekly or monthly as they were paid for what they earned, taxes would be a lot less than they are now.