This is about agreeing on a federal budget, not about paying debt obligations to the world. It will stop a lot of government employees and contractors from getting paid, and it will gum up a lot of government systems.

A small correction. Contractors continue to get paid because the government has already spent the money to pay them. Almost everyone working directly for the government does not get paid. The ones that do get paid are the ones that are in “critically important positions”. The military members go to work but don’t get paid (they have always gotten back pay) and civilians don’t go to work (they typically get back paid).

I’ll add that shutting down the government is expensive and doesn’t happen in an hour. The money spent to shut it down starts getting spent in the week/weeks before a possible shutdown as agencies close shop for an unknown amount of time. The theater of waiting until the last minute costs millions even if the bill eventually gets passed.