Many Republicans seem to be celebrating the government shutdown as an opportunity to show that less spending isn’t really so bad. “People are probably going to realize they can live with a lot less government than what they thought they needed,” said Representative Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee on Fox News. Her upbeat attitude helps explain why so many in her party thought nothing of shutting down a government they distrust, all to dismantle a health care law they oppose.

What these lawmakers aren’t telling Americans is that the shutdown will actually be very expensive and will wind up costing the taxpayers and the economy far more than the regular operations of government. The same people who have built their careers on railing about the deficit are actually increasing it.

The two most recent shutdowns, in 1995 and 1996, cost the Treasury $1.4 billion over 26 days, according to the White House Office of Management and Budget, the equivalent of $2.1 billion in today’s dollars.

That amount includes the cost of back pay for government employees who performed no work during those 26 days. (Congress has to decide whether to grant that pay, but it usually does.) Many employees also had to be paid to prepare for the shutdown and later for the resumption of work.