Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada walks to a Senate Democratic caucus to discuss the ongoing budget fight, Monday, Sept. 30, 2013, on Capitol Hill in Washington. Republicans and Democrats blamed each other Monday as they took the federal government to the brink of a shutdown in an intractable budget dispute over President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law. AP PHOTO/ EVAN VUCCI WASHINGTON—The United States was just hours from a potentially devastating shutdown of key federal government agencies Monday as lawmakers failed to agree stopgap budget measures. With eight hours left before a midnight (0400 GMT) deadline, a vote by the Democrat-led Senate to reject the Republican lower house’s latest bill put paid to hopes of compromise. Both sides blamed the other for the impasse, which will trigger a freeze in spending that President Barack Obama has warned could have catastrophic effects on the shaky economic recovery, and cost thousands of jobs. As hundreds of thousands of government employees faced the prospect of being sent home for the first time in 17 years, both sides threatened to tough it out. “We are not going to negotiate on this,” a stern-faced Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told reporters after the Senate rejected efforts by the House to link a spending bill to a delay of Obama’s healthcare law. “We are not changing ‘Obamacare,’” Reid fumed, adding that the House should pass a spending bill with no politically motivated riders. Read more: newsinfo.inquirer.net/498379/us-senate-rejects-house-budget-shutdown-imminent#ixzz2gQpJCrvj Follow us: @inquirerdotnet on Twitter | inquirerdotnet on Facebook
Posted on: Tue, 01 Oct 2013 02:01:33 +0000