Washington – The United States Government has grounded to a halt. This follows a decision of opposition, the Democrats, to not agree to a budget proposals presented by the Republican government to be used for the next fiscal year scheduled to start today, October 1.
The shutdown is the first in the past six years. The situation leaves some important federal dealings apart from social security and medicare benefits in the US in a precarious state.
Members of Congress are pointing accusing fingers at each other whiles citizens brace themselves for full scale impact of the shut down if no agreement is brokered any time soon.
Budget confrontations are said to be common in US politics, however, this spending fight is especially tense because Trump has spent the last nine months drastically cutting the size of the national government.
President Trump, though under pressure from the prevailing condition, has suggested that the present impasse could give him an opportunity to do more of this as the two sides of Congress argue on what must be added to the budget and what must be cut out of it.
Democrats are pushing for an extension of subsidies under the Affordable Care Act, the reversal of proposed Medicaid cuts, and assurances that President Trump will not influence government spending decisions without congressional approval.
Since no deal was made by the deadline on September 30, a lot of government workers are being told to stay home, and many services people rely on will pause until Congress arrive at a consensus.
Source: bbc.com
