US government shutdown! First in 17 years The U.S. government officially began a partial shutdown at midnight after a deadlocked Congress failed to put the interests of American and a fragile economic recovery ahead of political gains. Republicans rejected a clear bill to avoid a shutdown by keeping their focus on stalling Obamacare over keeping the government open! The Democratic Senate rejected twice on Monday Republican demands to put President Obama’s health care reforms that will force millions of Americans to buy health insurance on hold for a year, a key struggle in the crisis but remains of political weight rather than needed action for now. The current denouement over the short-term spending bill began when House Republicans — who have voted more than 40 times without success to defund or repeal the Affordable Care Act — made delaying the new health program a condition for renewing government funding beyond Sept. 30. Some 800,000 federal workers face furloughs in the shutdown, the important federal offices and operations will function but other services and offices will be shutdown including national parks. A partial government shutdown will initially cost the US economy an estimated $300 million per day of economic output, and grow further depending on how long the shutdown persists. As both parties failed to avoid a government shutdown, the risk is now higher that the deadlock will persist on the debt ceiling; failure to agree to raise the borrowing limit will have a great consequence and force a US default. Markets that have slipped recently now face a test on Tuesday morning of how they will view the developments, given that a larger deadline for Congress, over the need to raise the nation`s borrowing limit, is less than a month away. The White House ordered federal agencies to suspend a vast array of activities shortly before midnight, after a day of frantic legislative volleying left Senate Democrats and House Republicans at an impasse over government spending and the 2010 federal health-care law. The next steps to resolve the stalemate remained unclear. “Unfortunately, Congress has not fulfilled its responsibility. It has failed to pass a budget and, as a result, much of our government must now shut down until Congress funds its again,” President Barack Obama said in a video message to military and defense personnel around the world. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid rejected the move, saying he wouldn`t enter negotiations until the House agreed to reopen the government by extending its funding for several weeks. "We like to resolve issues, but we will not go to conference with a gun to our head," Mr. Reid said on the Senate floor.
Posted on: Tue, 01 Oct 2013 06:40:32 +0000
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