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From Phil McCausland and Suzanne Ciechalski
Mallory Lorge, who has type 1 diabetes, is forced to ration her insulin and look at her possessions to decide what to do. she can sell to pay her bills because she does not receive a pay check during the government's record close.
Lorge, who lives in the small town of River Falls, Wisconsin, said he had two insulin vials in his refrigerator. but she rationed them because she can no longer afford the $ 300 copay rights.
Her blood sugar level reached a high level last week, but she felt compelled to ignore it. Instead, she went to bed.
"When the level reaches this level, one can fall into diabetic ketoacidosis, one can fall into a coma," she said. "I can not afford to go to the emergency room. I can not allow myself anything. I just went to bed and I was hoping to wake up. "
Before all that, the future looked promising for Lorge, who worked for the Ministry of the Interior. She married a man whom she adored in September, planned with her husband to buy a bigger house for a potential family and had the ambition to become a ranger.
Shortly after returning from honeymoon, Lorge, 31, fell ill. with double pneumonia and had to be hospitalized for sepsis and respiratory failure. Because her diabetes complicated her situation, she left on sick leave and put her plans on hold.
Then, on December 22, she and her husband, who works for a tool manufacturing company, received two more financial blows. The government has partially closed its doors and the first of its medical bills has arrived. Lorge and her husband were forced to consolidate their debt with a $ 40,000 loan and she canceled all her doctor's appointments.
The couple expect to have to make their first loan installment next week, even if they spent all their savings and money. money received as a wedding gift. Her husband works overtime to make ends meet, but he was told that these hours could run out.
"It's like being held hostage," Lorge said. "I've been a federal public servant for six years and I love it. I am not paid much, but I like to work for the American people. The fact that the government has put us in this position is like a punch in the intestine.
Lorge said that she and her husband could probably afford to make ends meet for another three or four weeks. After that, she said she did not really know what could happen. The couple has applied for employment but has not yet received a response.
Lorge is one of more than 800,000 employees affected by the government's closure. Many were laid off or forced to work without pay because of a stalemate between President Donald Trump and Congress on the $ 5.7 billion grant to build a wall along the southern border.
Many federal employees received their first salary. who read $ 0.00. This financial reality has forced many people to seek help.
The Ministry of Labor reported Thursday that 4,760 federal government workers had applied for unemployment in the last week of December. This represents an increase of more than 500% over the previous week, when there were only 929.
This number is expected to increase in January and food banks are reporting an increasing need for the share of federal employees who are not paid. 19659007] "We are already seeing a negative impact on families and people in need of food who are suffering from the closure," Kate Leone, the government relations manager at Feeding America, said in a statement. "We expect more need as federal employees and fired federal contractors miss their paychecks in the absence of resolution, and the impact on the household budget could linger several months after the loss." of funds. "
Most Americans have only one paycheck difficult financial situation.
Fifty-eight percent of Americans save less than $ 1,000, according to a series of surveys conducted by GOBankingRates since 2015.
With housing and car payments, credit card debt and medical bills, a loss of income can mean uncertainty for most households across the country.
But closing is not just about individual portfolios.
The current political battle will soon cost the government more money than the $ 5.7 billion Trump has associated with the border wall. . CNBC reported on Friday that an estimate from S & P Global Ratings had concluded that if the shutdown continued for two more weeks, the US economy would cost more than $ 6 billion.
But for Lorge and her husband, the price to pay for this ongoing battle is theirs.
"You have hopes and dreams, then things like that are on the back burner," she said. . "My husband and I were talking and saying: Let's just worry about each day. We can not worry about our dreams now. ""
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