US government begins shutdown; 1 mn workers may lose pay

The US government began shutting down today for the first time in 17 years, as the Republican-controlled House and the Senate, where the Democrats have a slim majority, failed to reach an agreement on the spending bill.

The move will put up to 1 million workers on unpaid leave, closing national parks and stalling medical research projects, and cost the US economy about $1 billion a week.

Federal agencies were directed to cut back services after lawmakers could not break the deadlock, with neither side budging on the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare as it has become known. House Republicans insist that the spending bill must include anti-Obamacare amendments, while Senate Democrats are just as insistent that it doesn't need amending.

Shortly before midnight, Obama notified government agencies to prepare to cease operations Tuesday, even as House Republicans worked on a fourth and final attempt to again advance a plan to delay the individual mandate to buy health insurance exchanges that open for enrolment today.

The House Republicans' moves came as a series of polls released Monday showed that they were bearing the bulk of the blame for the shutdown. One of their Senate colleagues, Sen John McCain of Arizona, the party's 2008 presidential nominee, called their position doomed to eventual failure.

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.

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

The political dysfunction at the Capitol also raised fresh concerns about whether Congress can meet a crucial mid-October deadline to raise the government's $16.7-trillion debt ceiling.

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

The political stakes are particularly high for Republicans, who are trying to regain control of the Senate next year. Polls show they are more likely to be blamed for the shutdown, as they were during the last shutdown in 1996.

The shutdown, the culmination of three years of divided government and growing political polarization, was spearheaded by Tea Party conservatives united in their opposition to Obama, their distaste for Obama's healthcare law and their campaign pledges to rein in government spending.

Obama refused to negotiate over the demands and warned a shutdown could "throw a wrench into the gears of our economy."

Some government offices and national parks will be shuttered, but spending for essential functions related to national security and public safety will continue, including pay for US military troops.

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 Obamacare. The Senate instead insisted on funding the government through 15 November without special conditions.

Whether the shutdown represents another bump in the road for a Congress increasingly plagued by dysfunction or is a sign of a more alarming breakdown in the political process could be determined by the reaction among voters and on Wall Street.