Yes, you read correctly. A government shutdown is not only possible within the next week, but every day that the Republican-filled House of Representatives and Democratic majority in the Senate fail to compromise, the more likely a government shutdown will occur.

The top Democrat on the House Budget Committee, Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., said last weekend he thinks there is at least a 50 percent chance of a government shutdown.

A government shutdown isn’t necessarily as scary as it suggests, though. The government is still required to provide the essential services to its citizens such as police, firefighting, armed forces and utilities.

However, a government shutdown can certainly be a nuisance, especially to college students. If you are planning on applying for a student loan, I recommend you do it sooner rather than later considering the government won’t be able to process the paperwork if it shuts down.

If you are planning on studying abroad, you better hurry up and get your passport. During the last shutdown, approximately 200,000 passport applications were not processed.

Also, if a government shutdown were to occur, it would put a freeze on the sending of Social Security checks. Veteran payments would also suffer.

This budget war has become the classic case of Republican versus Democrat economics. Six weeks ago, the Republican-dominated House approved a plan to slash $61 billion from federal agencies. Democrats, led by Vice President Joe Biden, embraced efforts to find $33 billion in cuts.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nv., addressed the issue by saying the fate of negotiations rests on whether Speaker of the House John Boehner stops Tea Party activist “dictating” to leadership on what sort of a deal he can accept. Reid also brought up a CNN poll last week that showed the Tea Party movement was actually losing popularity among the general population.

Although Reid’s comments might have been a tad judgmental, he does have a point. Boehner has the difficult task of negotiating with Democrats, while at the same time trying to keep the Tea Partiers happy.

Tea Party activists already criticized Boehner for signaling possible agreement on smaller cuts.

Besides the dilemma Boehner is facing with the Tea Party and Democrats, there is another aspect that suggests a government shutdown could be in the future. Under the new House Republicans rules, any bill to be voted Friday would have to be posted Tuesday night, giving both sides less time to negotiate.

The main difference between this potential government shutdown and the last government shutdown in 1996 is the stakes are higher. The economy is in much worse shape now compared to 1996. In 1996, the deficit was less than 1.4 percent of the gross domestic product, compared to roughly 9 percent in 2010. The national debt was less than $5 trillion in 1996. It’s more than $14 trillion now.

So the status of a potential government shutdown is day to day. The closer it gets to April 8, the more likely a government shutdown becomes.