I'm guessing for 8 weeks.

Won't those furloughed workers also lose their health insurance benefits? Will they have to pay COBRA insurance?

I believe this shut down is planned to shake people up into supporting DEEP CUTS in the budget that would have been opposed staunchly without this shock measure.

They create chaos, and things get so bad that the solution, slashing social security, Medicare, and entitlement programs, would be accepted as a lesser of the evils.

Since the government is the largest employer in our nation, that means this will be the largest layoff in the history of this country occurring tonight at midnight!