Washington on the brink of shutdown

The US capital was gripped by uncertainty as Congress was on the brink of denying the Obama White House a critical line of financing, thereby pushing the federal government into across-the-board shutdown.

Widely considered to be a manifestation of the rigid stalemate that has paralysed lawmakers on Capitol Hill, unless the Republican-controlled House relents on its demand that certain provisions of President Barack Obama’s landmark healthcare reform policy be defunded before they give government finances a new lease of life.

If the shutdown happens, hundreds of thousands of federal workers could be furloughed and only “essential services”, such as homeland security, mail delivery, air traffic control and welfare and federal court services, will continue. Non-essential services that may be indefinitely suspended include tax audits, loan processing by the housing authority, museums and national parks, and federal occupational health and safety inspections.

There was little cause for optimism, as the House rejected a Senate budget proposal passed, which would have kept the government operational until November 15. Over the weekend, the House, instead, passed a continuing resolution that would allocate funding until mid-December, but would also impose a one-year delay on key parts of Mr. Obama’s Affordable Care Act — a measure that Democrats reportedly called a “non-starter”.

Hours ahead of the deadline, the Democrat-dominated Senate is expected to “kill” the House’s latest resolution, and then pass a “clean bill” that will keep the government running sans any amendments to what is now popularly known as “Obamacare”.

Federal government shutdowns are not new to America. While there have been no fewer than 17 such closures in the past, all premised on the notion of financing blockades that made the provision of certain services impossible for a few months, this week’s would be the first shutdown in 17 years. Among the previous shutdowns, at least three were directly rooted in efforts by conservatives to reverse healthcare policies that included support for abortion services in the case of rape, incest or the mother’s life being in danger.

The potential impact of a shutdown was put into context by Stephen Fuller of George Mason University, who said to The Washington Post that in the national capital region, which has the largest concentration of federal workers and contractors in the country, there could be an estimated loss of $200million a day and more than 700,000 jobs may take a financial hit.

BLAST From the PAST
Here is the history of U.S. shutdowns in the past
Year	Reason
Sep 30, 1976(10 days)	President Gerald Ford vetoes funding bill for the Departments of labour, Health, Education and Welfare. Congress overrides Ford’s veto
Sep 30, 1977 (12 days)	Senate wants to fund abortions using Medicaid for mothers who had been raped. House doesn’t want to pay for abortions except in cases where mother’s life is at stake
Oct 31, 1977 (08 days)	Abortion disruption continues
Nov 30, 1977 (08 days)	Abortion dispute III Resolved to include rape clause in Medicare
Sep 30, 1978 (18 days)	President Jimmy Carter vetoes purchase of nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, bill for water projects Carrier purchased, one water project scrapped
Sep 30, 1979 (11 days)	House wants higher pay for civil servants by 5.5%, abortion debate continues Higher pay accepted, abortion laws stay put
Nov 20, 1981 (2 days)
Sep 30, 1982 (1 day)
Dec 17, 1982 (3 days)
Nov 10, 1983 (3 days)	Democrats want more aid for Egypt, Israel but cut aid for Syria Democrats set deal, roll back abortion clause to include funding only in case mother’s life in danger
Sep 30, 1984 (2 days)	Spending bill with crime-fighting package, water projects debate
Oct 03, 1984 (1 day)	Crime package passed, water projects shelved
Oct 16, 1986 (1 day)
Dec 18, 1987 (1 day)
Oct 05, 1990 ( 3 days)
Nov 13, 1995 (5 days)	Medicare reforms row
Dec 05, 1995 (21 days)	Budget plans derail govt; Bill Clinton’s 7 year plan produced $115billion deficit Clinton submits the new budget plan that balanced the budget
Oct 01, 2013

What the shutdown in US means?

Staff crunch	Civilian staff members are classified as ‘essential’ (such as national security enforcers) and ‘non-essential’ (such as NASA staff) About 800000 non-essential staff are furloughs (lay off), while about 1.3 mn ‘essential’ workers will go tot work with delayed pay
Shuttered	National parks, museums and other govt tourist spots will remain closed, NASA, the environmental protection agency and local housing authorities would also down shutters. The White House, Energy Dept and so on would function skeletally
Out of Office	Washington’s subway was filled as usual with workers trekking tot heir desks, but on this day they arrived only to lock up and leave ‘out of office’ messages. Several employees also complained that they were being made to work without pay

“A group of Republicans just forced a government shutdown over Obamacare instead of passing a real budget”

à Mr. Barack Obama, US President