hi, i'm lisa fletcher and you are in "the stream." here is something you probably hadn't thought of, can d.c. survive the government shutdown? as the political gridlock stalls jobs and services across the nation, d.c.'s residents are running out of time and funds. ♪ >> our digital producer wajahat ali is here bringing in all of your live feedback. waj real fear is starting to set in for d.c. families. >> yeah, and our community are

tired of the partisan politics. francis a loyal streamer says . . . speaking of real people, diana says . . . >> yeah, it has. we keep hearing it all day long, just the food pantries alone how they are getting so many calls from people who otherwise had stable lives. >> my friend who left nonprofit

to work for the government, and she said she has to ask her parents for a loan to pay her rent because the check isn't coming this week. >> yeah, she is not alone. outside of the bureaucratic laws of congress, and that's another dc. living in a city that is stuck in a very unique predicament. they are taking a disproportion at it hit since the shutdown. they make up 12.6% of the work force here. because d.c. is a federal district and not state, all of its budget is subject to congressional approval. so unlike states which are relying on local funds to stay afloat, d.c. cannot use any of its budget. even the 75% that is locally raised. to survise d.c. has tapped into emergency funds to cover critical services.

and with a divided house, the nation's capitol pretty much remain in limbo. joining us to paint a picture of the shutdown's effect on d.c. is nathan fleming. he is what is called a shadow representative in the house but doesn't have any voting power. and the head of d.c.'s nonprofit latin america foundation. and a doctoral student in political theory at catholic university. welcome everyone to "the stream." 78,000 people in d.c. work for the government. so because of such a high concentration of jobs in a small area, the aggravate effect is really extreme. talk about the disproportion at it effect that the shutdown is

having on dc. >> certainly. as you said our city services we have to get approval from congress to have a conversation. there's a program called the urban area security initiative that allows washington, d.c. to provide grants to surrounding jurisdictions to provide for homeland security. we're not able to make those shutdowns. we're not able to make medicaid payments. so to provide services for people who need health care, the providers aren't able to provide it at this point. public charter schools, we're not going to be able to make that payment -- [ technical difficulties ] -- as you stated there is an economic imprint of about $220 million per day as a result of the federal payment and federal contractors. so when local businesses aren't

able to pay their workers, or local families can't provide their families with food it's very difficult. >> it hurts not having a lot of our every day customers here. i would say a good 30%, 40% of the people we serve are government please. half of the town, you know, makes their living in one way or another with the government whether they are contractors or directly or indirectly. i think a lot of food trucks are seeing attendance drop by 40, 50%. there is nothing more personal than your own business. >> he says it right there, there is nothing more personal than your own business.

from small restaurant owners to cab drivers, to gas station owners, they are all effected. and $4.5 million a day should be coming in. talk about all of the trickle down effect here. the trickle down impact is enormous in the sense that our tourism, local parks, the smithsonian, those amenities respect available for our residents. and those federal workers have to make their payments, so when we don't have that -- that capital coming into their income, it has a trickle-down effect on our economy, our local businesses, our food trucks. they are not able to sustain, because they really rely on that business. and in the last shutdown it was about five days before d.c. was funded. and now we're going on our 15th day. >> i got a tweet from damon, who

says . . . we have this -- talking about a silver lining here. we have nourish now. give it a listen. >> we rescue unused fresh food from food providers at get them on the tables of families. we have received many calls from families who have found themselves suddenly in need of food assistance. on the other side of the coin we have had almost an equivalent number of government workers reaching out to volunteer. >> so lauri, at least we have some citizens stepping up and

being good samaritans. talk about how the shutdown has effected your organization and your community. >> yeah, this has been incredibly tough on the youth center and nonprofit in general. last week we furloughed 80 staff people and went down to essential services, and i'm seeing others in the nonprofit community do the same thing. what happened is all of the cash has just dried up. there's just no cash flow, so you just can't keep operating with no guarantee. we'll miss our payroll on the 15th and that effects over 200 employees that we have, many of whom are also not high-paid workers, and they need their paycheck to be able to meet their bills, so the ramifications of this are in every area of the city, not to mention the kids that rely on our job training, mental health,

drug treatment, all of the things we do every single day. >> what can states do right now to mitigate the effects of the d.c. shutdown? >> the state's budget autonomy allows them the opportunity -- or they have available to them the ability to largely continue operating in norm always, and while they do depend on federal funds for a variety of areas, the basic operating status of state governments is in a normal state right now. so unlike what d.c. has with its budget, states are largely -- they are not completely unaffected by this type of issue. >> after the break, we're going to talk about whether there is anything that can be done to unlock d.c.'s budget. but before we get to that, here are a couple of the stories that you are following.

♪ [[voiceover]] every day, events sweep across our country. and with them, a storm of views. how can you fully understand the impact unless you've heard angles you hadn't considered? antonio mora brings you smart conversation that challenges the status quo with unexpected opinions and a fresh outlook. including yours.

al jazeera america - a new voice in american journalism - >> introduces america tonight. >> in egypt, police fired teargas at supporters of the ... >> a fresh take on the stories that connect to you. [[voiceover]] they risk never returning to the united states. >> grounded. >> real. >> unconventional. [[voiceover]] we spent time with some members of the gangster disciples. >> an escape from the expected. >> i'm a cancer survivor. not only cancer, but brain cancer. america tonight 9 eastern on al jazeera america this is real. and a government shutdown, millions of americans face inconvenience or outright difficulties. everyone american could see their 401k values fall, and there could be a significant

risk of a very deep recession at a time when we're still climbing our way out of the worst recession in our lifetimes. >> welcome back. we're discussing the wide-spread impact of the government on dc. it has been two weeks since the shutdown started, nate how much longer can d.c. survive on the contingency funds? >> it costs about $20 million per day to operate the government. it seems that friday is the drop-dead date in terms of local spending. >> so what is the back up plan when four days pass? >> at that time we'll have to make a tough decision. essential services will be funded to some degree, but we have to decide what we're going to do. >> our community the tweets are rolling in lisa.

and z-burger gave people free burgers. and also kramer books said . . . but take it back to the people, i want to go one more tweet here vern says . . . and listen to angel who is a teacher. >> my name is angel, i am a public middle school teacher in washington, d.c. my main concern with the government shutdown is the real possibility that teachers will have to go without pay until the shutdown is resolved.

i find this to be not only ludicrous but insulting to the procession itself. our job is difficult as it is, it will be more difficult if we're not getting paid thank you. >> julia talk to me about the survival strategy your friends and community members are coming up with if this furlough keeps going on. >> one of the things we have learned is it's important to budget. and we see this in our personal lives. but also this points to the larger issue of our government. budgeting is governing. congress we have seen that these series of issues is not a good long-term solution. congress needs to budget, budgeting is governing. >> john is there any precedence for civil disobesence of d.c.

spending the money without asking. >> there is some civil disobese ens, but the congress can make life hell for the district of columbia to be honest. so they have to play a game constantly between arguing what they feel are their rights, but also realizing the top down relationship. >> d.c. does have a unique special constitutional relationship with congress. state governments are functioning because the states have a completely different relationship. in d.c. the federal government has the general legislative power of it. >> our community is chiming in

here, david says. kind of a peace meal approach. what do you think about that? >> it seems like that piecemeal approach is controversial as it relates to the white house. and it seems like the district of columbia is being characterized as a piecemeal approach, and d.c. is a living, breathing city with taxpayers that work hard and they are feeling the impact of this, and i think what is most ironic, is we bare the brunt of the federal shutdown, but we're the only tax paying citizens in the country that don't have a voting voice in congress.

>> does this hurt the overall negotiation process? >> i don't think d.c.'s request is being factored in. in reality congress has before it a tremendous amount of work in terms of reopening the government, now avoiding a credit default, and as sad as it is, the budget autonomy that d.c. requires is not being talked about. it's not part of the discussion, and not going to be part of the discussion, and part of the reason for that is what the other guests just mentioned and that is d.c. doesn't have a voting voice in congress, and because of that, these issues that are so critical are not being heard. they are not being covered as well in the media or being heard in the halls of congress. >> i had a group of international visitors at the union center the other day, and when i told them the district was considered a federal agency, they were shocked. they had no idea.

they didn't know what it meant. they didn't understand it. and once i explained it they couldn't believe it. it really is a ridiculous situation. >> that's the whole reason we wanted to do this show tonight, because so many people if you are not from the region they don't understand how the poli c politics of d.c. function. maryland, d.c., and virginia are all one tiny little space. virginia is being hugely affected by a lot of other factors, but these federal agencies are all over the place in a very small area. >> yeah, listen to josh. >> the government shutdown highlights our disenfranchise. and disempowerment here in the district. not only do we not have members of congress to vote for the

district, but our dollars are being allowed to be spent. so this shutdown disproportionately effects citizens of the district of columbia. >> lori talk to me about what your community thinks about this issue. >> i think everyone is really mad. and i think people are really tired of the circumstance, and i really value that our delegate norton and mayor were out in front of this issue before this happened, and now that this has hand what could give a better example of why we need to change the status of the district of columbia. for most of us who live work and pay taxes here, we all feel this circumstance should never occur again. >> john, d.c. has a very unique

multi-tiered economic impact from the government shutdown, how does that translate to recovery, and does that make recovery more difficult once this is straightened out. >> one positive is that money is going -- most of what is being held back right now is payroll, and because of that, the money will be injected right into the economy, so there will be a deflay that period, but it will be money into people's pockets right away, which is one of the best ways to spur recovery from any economic crisis, whether it's a recession, long term unemployment or a manufactured situation like we have here. that said in the interim the costs are profound. you can't tell your bank, sorry the government is closed, i can't pay my mortgage this month.

and all of the bills piling up across the region, in the short-term it's economic chaos, in a longer term there will be a stim lative effect of getting the money back in people's pockets. >> all right. when we come back we'll talk about the broader implications of the government shutdown, and then get deeper into the conversation of statehood. keep tweeting us using the hashtag ajamstream. that's all i have an real money.

victoria azarenko on august 20th, al jazee

we're back and we're looking at how the government shutdown could impact d.c.'s future specifically, and there are observers which say what is happening now, which is d.c. not being able to use its own locally earned tax dollars is

really bad. how big of an issue is this? >> why it is important that the federal government not be located in the state, and the answer is if we want the federal government to function, it cannot be located within a specific state. the framers specifically created the district of columbia, because they don't want our nation's capitol to be subservient to a specific state. >> shouldn't there be no residents then living in d.c. if that is the case. >> first of all the proposal for statehood shrinks the size. and then the surrounding neighborhoods become the 51st state. but virginia no one says that

the citizens of virginia shouldn't participate in the government. the central government was weak, but it is strong now, and most federal workers don't even work in dc. so we can have statehood and still provide for the business of the federal government. >> in the case of d.c. there is a conflict that says if d.c. [ inaudible ] and the principal of federalism, and the larger issue at steak is that of federalism. so hours are divided between state governments and the federal government, so you don't want to allow one state to control the actions of the federal government. this was a concern that the founders addressed specifically in the 1780s. they had a situation where the congress had to flee the city because soldiers marched on the capitol. and they wanted to make sure the district would be protected from

that. >> as you can imagine our community disagrees passionately. and lori what is your opinion on statehood? >> i'm all for it. i live, i pay taxes here. i believe we should be a state. i hear about what the founding fathers and this and that, but quite frankly there are over 600,000 people who live in the city. and if there was a will to get it done, i'm sure it could be worked out.

>> the budget autonomy can be fixed legislatively, and i think it would be certainly in the interest of congress as lori said earlier, if we have ever had a moment that showed us that we need budget autonomy for the district of columbia, this is that moment. we're seeing the ramifications and consequences of this, and they are profound, and it's a policy that has no rational reason for still existing. in terms of representation that's a harder question, and people have very different views. from my reading of the constitution, the representation question does really need to be resolved through the statehood process and not through simply granting voting rights to congress woman norton or whoever the d.c. delegate is. my guess is representation, voting voice in congress was granted, it would cause a court challenge and a constitutional

question would arise. >> david just tweeted . . . and he gives the alternative, d.c. could be treated as part of maryland for purposes of senate and house elections. that's how it was initially. >> we only have about 30 seconds left in the show. so nate give us what is going to happen here. what is your prediction? >> i think we're going to get through this. but the only way to solve this is through statehood for d.c. because it's the only way to grant representation for the 600,000 residents. >> thank you all for helping us bring to light a side of d.c. that most people don't ever see, and thanks to our community. we'll see you tomorrow. ♪

good evening, everyone, welcome to al jazeera america, i'm john siegenthaler in new york. >> this progress is real. i think there has been some progress in the senate. >> cautious optimism the deal underway in the senate. healthcare hassle new numbers show the problems facing the affordable healthcare act. plus facing trial in new york, the new location of the man accused of bombing american embassies and killing hundreds. ♪