Funding stalemate persists on first day of government shutdown

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Funding stalemate persists on first day of government shutdown

(Xinhua) 11:23, October 02, 2013

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WASHINGTON, Oct. 1 -- U.S. House and Senate lawmakers remained at an impasse on Tuesday over the funding bill, as the government shutdown was felt throughout the country.

The first federal government shutdown in 17 years began Tuesday with federal employees furloughed and closed museums and national parks.

On Tuesday morning, the Senate voted down the House Republican request to name negotiators to a bipartisan conference committee to resolve differences. The vote marked the fourth time since Monday that the Senate has rejected the House efforts to avert a government shutdown.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he would not negotiate as long as Republicans were holding up a straightforward bill to keep the government running.

U.S. President Barack Obama delivered a speech at noon in the White House, chiding Republicans in Congress for the shutdown and defending his signature health care law, known as Obamacare.

Republicans in Congress "chose" the government shutdown that "did not have to happen," Obama said in the White House Rose Garden, adding that "the longer this shutdown continues, the worst the effects will be."

The last time the government shut down was in 1996 during budget standoff between the Clinton administration and a Republican-controlled Congress. "Unlike 1996, our economy is still recovering from the worst recession in generations," said Obama.

"They've shut down the government over an ideological crusade to deny affordable health insurance to millions of Americans," said the president.

Obama stressed that this shutdown is neither about deficits, nor about budgets, but about "rolling back the Affordable Care Act." The law, commonly known as Obamacare, passed both chambers of Congress and was signed into law in 2010. The Supreme Court ruled it constitutional last year.

Obama said because of the funding sources, the health care law is not impacted by a government shutdown. "Even though the

government is closed, a big part of the Affordable Care Act is now open for business," he said.

Americans in different states without health insurance can begin signing up for coverage through on-line exchanges. They have

a six-month enrollment period for exchanges if they want to avoid a fine for not buying insurance, according to the law.

Later on Tuesday night, the House failed to pass a series of separate bills to fund parts of the government, including national parks, veterans services and the operation of the District of Columbia. The measures were initiated by the House GOP members with an aim to mitigate some of the most unpopular consequences of the ongoing government shutdown.

Both the White House and the Senate Democratic leaders had voiced rejection to the piecemeal strategy. "Now they are focusing on trying to cherry-pick some of the few parts of government that they like," said Reid on the Senate floor. "This is not serious. The government is shut down. And if they think they're going to come and nit-pick us on this, it won't work."

The White House also noted that President Obama would veto House Republican bills that would fund only parts of the federal government and not resolve the whole government shutdown.

"The President and the Senate have been clear that they won't accept this kind of game-playing, and if these bills were to come to the president's desk, he would veto them," the White House spokeswoman Amy Brundage said in a statement.

With no serious negotiations going on, the Congressional deadlock would drag on. David Stockton, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE), projected that the government shutdown each week will cost the United States about 0.15 percent of the fourth-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) growth.