U.S Government Shutdown

[Grig]

Summary from the BBC:

The US government has begun a partial shutdown after the two houses of Congress failed to agree a new budget.
The Republican-led House of Representatives insisted on delaying President Barack Obama's healthcare reform - dubbed Obamacare - as a condition for passing a bill.

More than 800,000 federal employees face unpaid leave with no guarantee of back pay once the deadlock is over.
It is the first shutdown in 17 years and the dollar fell early on Tuesday.

Goldman Sachs estimates a three-week shutdown could shave as much as 0.9% from US GDP this quarter.
The White House's budget office began notifying federal agencies to begin an "orderly shutdown" as the midnight deadline approached.

Shortly after midnight, President Obama tweeted: "They actually did it. A group of Republicans in the House just forced a government shutdown over Obamacare instead of passing a real budget."

House Speaker John Boehner told reporters he hoped the Senate would agree to a bipartisan committee known as a conference "so we can resolve this for the American people".

"The House has voted to keep the government open but we also want basic fairness for all Americans under Obamacare," he said.

The Senate is to meet again at 09:30 (13:30 GMT) on Tuesday.

The BBC's Mark Mardell in Washington says the divide in US politics has grown so bitter that government itself cannot function.

Who is affected?

Democrats were never likely to make concessions on healthcare reform - Mr Obama's signature achievement and a central issue in last year's presidential election, our correspondent says. But Republicans have made demands that they knew would not be met rather than be accused of weakness and betrayal by their own hardliners, he adds.

On Monday afternoon, the Democratic-led Senate voted 54-46 against a bill from House Republicans that would have funded the government only if President Obama's healthcare law was delayed for a year.

Major portions of the healthcare law, which passed in 2010 and has been validated by the US Supreme Court, are due to take effect on Tuesday regardless of whether there is a shutdown.

President Obama went on national television to criticise Republicans for trying to refight the last election.
A shutdown would have "a very real economic impact on real people, right away," he said, adding it would "throw a wrench" into the US recovery.

"The idea of putting the American people's hard-earned progress at risk is the height of irresponsibility, and it doesn't have to happen."

After the Senate vote, the chamber's Democratic majority leader blamed Republicans for the imminent halt to all non-essential government operations.

"It will be a Republican government shutdown, pure and simple," said Harry Reid, referring to the Republicans as "bullies".
Mr Obama has signed legislation ensuring that military personnel would be paid. The defence department had advised employees that uniformed members of the military would continue on normal duty, but that large numbers of civilian workers would be told to stay home.

Under the shutdown, national parks and Washington's Smithsonian museums will close, pension and veterans' benefit cheques will be delayed, and visa and passport applications will go unprocessed. Programmes deemed essential, such as air traffic control and food inspections, will continue.

The US government has not undergone a shutdown since 1995-96, when services were suspended for a record 21 days.
Republicans demanded then-President Bill Clinton agree to their version of a balanced budget.

As lawmakers grappled with the latest shutdown, the 17 October deadline for extending the government's borrowing limit looms even larger.

On that date, the US government will reach the limit at which it can borrow money to pay its bills, the so-called debt ceiling.

House Republicans have also demanded a series of policy concessions - including on the president's health law and on financial and environmental regulations - in exchange for raising the debt ceiling.
"I'm thoroughly disgusted with our politicians," Ken Griffith from Kentucky told the Associated Press news agency.
"They're acting like a bunch of three year old children. It's who can hold their breath the longest."

World's biggest democracy under a government shutdown at the moment. This seems to have been close to happening every year since Obama and a Republican dominated Congress have worked together. Essentially, from an economic perspective if leads the U.S. closer to default, essentially running out of money by October 17th.

The whole stalemate is with Obamacare, which I don't get, seeing as it does provide more affordable health care in the long run.

The government is becoming into a lame duck, although surveyed, people said they would view this more as the Republicans faults, rather than the democrats. There are some really hawkish Republicans who will fight Obamacare until death, and they essentially formed a group. That group was significant enough that Boehner had to listen to them. On top of this, Boehner really doesn't have as much power now, due to different factions.

Like I said, the above was they key date and with a still fragile economy, it won't look too good.

Anyway, any thoughts?

[-:Undertaker:-]

The Republicans should DEMAND that the hole in the Federal budget is closed immediately otherwise, until then, no budget will be passed. If I were a member of Congress, I wouldn't vote for any bill or budget that raised the debt.

[Chippiewill]

The republicans don't even care about the hole though, they're just ******* around with the ACA.

[Inseriousity.]

Remember watching The West Wing where they had a government shutdown on the show. Strange to see it happen irl and again I'm wondering why anyone would think that this was the best idea when they worked out how the country should function. "If we can't agree, let's just shut everything down and continue to disagree" hmmmmmmmmmmmm

[Grig]

kudos to the WWII vets for still fighting strong:

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com...ade/?hpt=hp_t1

[FlyingJesus]

Hahhaahaahaahaha Boehner.

Anyway...

"The House has voted to keep the government open but we also want basic fairness for all Americans under Obamacare,"

Well then Obamacare needs some serious rewriting, considering it's going to force a group who statistically aren't likely to use it to pay more than 50% extra to subsidise those who use it the most - whose premiums go up just 4%. Equality!
But who cares about that when there's a temporary fence stopping you from sitting on a statue