United States Government shuts down

Story by News One
Written by Ebony McMorris

A wave of last-minute moves by the House, Senate and White House late Monday failed to break a bitter budget standoff over President Obama’s health care law, setting in motion the first government shutdown in nearly two decades.

This means that 800,000 federal workers are to be furloughed and more than a million others would be asked to work without pay.

The Office of Management and Budget issued orders shortly before the midnight deadline that “agencies should now execute plans for an orderly shutdown due to the absence of appropriations” because Congress failed to act to keep the federal government financed.

House Republican leaders won approval in a vote of 228 to 201 of a new plan to delay government spending for one-year to fund the Affordable Health Care Act. The House proposal would also deny federal subsidies to members of Congress, Capitol Hill staff, executive branch political appointees, White House staff, and the president and vice president, who would be forced to buy their health coverage on the Affordable Care Act’s new insurance exchanges. Without debate, the Senate killed the House health care provisions and sent the stop-gap spending bill right back, free of policy prescriptions.

HOW LONG WILL IT LAST AND WHO’S TO BLAME?
DO YOU TRUST YOUR ELECTED OFFICALS?

Links:
1. New York Times - http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/30/us/politics/time-short-but-gop-leaders-say-shutdown-can-be-avoided.html?_r=0
2. Washington Post - http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/government-shutdown-begins-senate-expected-to-reject-latest-house-proposal/2013/10/01/ef464556-2a88-11e3-97a3-ff2758228523_story.html?hpid=z1
3. USA Today - http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/10/01/government-shutdown-real-people/2900677/
4. Bloomberg - http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-01/government-shutdown-begins-as-deadlocked-congress-flails.html