Food Stamps
Louisiana’s Department of Children and Family Services said it will continue to fund social programs through October, without elaborating on what would happen after that. Welfare, food stamps and programs for low-income children could be affected by a lengthy shutdown. In addition, Louisiana receives nearly half of its annual budget from the federal government, second only to Mississippi, according to the Tax Foundation, a Washington-based research group.
“We’ve been kind of blessed I suppose,” Collier said. “We’re different from some of the other places that are getting the hell kicked out of them right now.”
Collier said a debt default would also carry risks for Fleming, even in a district where Tea Party activists expect him to fight for budget cuts.
“This thing next week is loaded up and that’s a dangerous set of circumstances,” he said of the debt-ceiling debate. “It sure would get people’s attention if the markets declined.”
For now, though, even voters who don’t support the shutdown said they’re hardly fazed by it.
James Evans, a 33-year-old manager at Ivan Smith Furniture Store in Fleming’s hometown of Minden, Louisiana, said he’s seen no effect on sales. “I’m so far out of the loop,” he said. “I haven’t noticed anything out of the ordinary here.”