US Government, Closed for Business

01 Oct, 2013

The U.S. government began a partial shutdown on Tuesday for the first time in 17 years, potentially putting up to 1 million workers on unpaid leave, closing national parks and stalling medical research projects.

Federal agencies were directed to cut back services after lawmakers could not break a political stalemate that sparked new questions about the ability of a deeply divided Congress to perform its most basic functions.

After House Republicans floated a late offer to break the logjam, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid rejected the idea, saying Democrats would not enter into formal negotiations on spending “with a gun to our head” in the form of government shutdowns.

In the hours leading up to the deadline, the Democratic-controlled Senate repeatedly stripped measures passed by the House that tied temporary funding for government operations to delaying or scaling back the Affordable Care Act healthcare overhaul known as Obamacare.

Shortly after midnight, President Barack Obama tweeted: “The Affordable Care Act is moving forward. You can’t shut it down.”

After missing the midnight (0400 GMT) deadline to avert the shutdown, Republicans and Democrats in the House continued a bitter blame game, each side shifting responsibility to the other in efforts to redirect a possible public backlash.

If Congress can agree to a new funding bill soon, the shutdown would last days rather than weeks. But no signs emerged of a strategy to bring the parties together.

With an eye on the 2014 congressional elections, both parties tried to deflect responsibility for the shutdown. Obama accused Republicans of being too beholden to Tea Party conservatives in the House of Representatives and said the shutdown might threaten the economic recovery.

The political stakes are particularly high for Republicans, who are trying to regain control of the Senate next year.

Reuters

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