"To me it's just a shame for all the technicians and all the government employees out there who are getting a cut in pay because of the delay of getting things done by Congress," said Elizabeth Gelhar of Dayton.
Hundreds of thousands of government workers will now be furloughed due to the government shutdown, with more than 8,700 civilian workers at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base included in those numbers.
Karl Henry, the food and beverage manager at Giovanni's in Fairborn, recounts how furloughs earlier in the year affected operations at the restaurant that relies on the business from workers at the base.
"When we had furloughs on Friday, it was real, real slow," Henry said.
Nearly a third of the daytime traffic to the store comes from Wright-Patt.
"And after those finished, we started bouncing back," he said, "but that's only been two weeks, and now we're in this."
This was the budget battle-triggered shutdown, which is forcing agencies such as Wright-Patterson to furlough workers or curtail services until there is a resolution.
"When families have less and less money to spend, they're going to be very careful about how they spend it," he said.
Deborah McDonnell, Fairborn city manager, said the shutdown will only hurt the local economy.
"The Air Force Museum, tourism goes down because families can't come and see those things," she said. "That's even another, double effect on our restaurants and our hotels. It's going to be hard."
This is the first partial government shutdown in 17 years.
After the midnight deadline passed, responses on social media were varied, with some in support and some against the government gridlock.
"I DO NOT CARE. SHUT IT ALL DOWN," said one Twitter follower, @ThomDartt, in response to a tweet announcing the shutdown was occurring.
Some question why the government shutdown is continuing on while the health care law in which it is fighting is still being put into place today.
"Even John McCain has said a shutdown will not stop this healthcare law. A conservative supreme court upheld it. End of story," said one WHIO-TV Facebook user.
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