President Barack Obama in Congress stand-off as America closes for business

 

Up to one million workers in America were waking up today with no job to go to after a partial shutdown of the US Government due to political deadlock in Washington.

Amid fears that the paralysing stalemate in Congress could prove difficult to break, the dollar fell against other currencies and markets were left on tenterhooks.

Barack Obama is refusing to bow to Republican demands for changes to his flagship health care reforms as the price for essential federal funding.

As hundreds of thousands of workers were told not to turn up to work, a blame game erupted in Washington, with the US president accusing Republicans of blocking vital government funding “all to save face after making some impossible promises to the extreme right wing of their party”.

He added: “You don’t get to extract a ransom for doing your job, for doing what you’re supposed to be doing anyway, or just because there’s a law there that you don’t like.”

But Republican House Speaker John Boehner hit back, saying that Mr Obama’s new health care law “is having a devastating impact. Something has to be done.”

Many Republicans see the “Obamacare” health plans, intended to provide coverage for the millions less wealthy Americans, as wasteful and restricting freedom by requiring most citizens to have health insurance.

In scenes not seen for nearly two decades, White House budget director Sylvia Burwell issued a directive to federal agencies a few minutes before midnight to “execute plans for an orderly shutdown”.

Most of the NASA space agency, national park offices, veterans’ centres and many other public services were today set to remain closed, though critical parts of the government such as hospitals, border controls, social security systems, the military and air traffic controllers would continue to work.

David Cameron stressed that the crisis in America should serve as a warning to Britain about the need to get a grip on public finances.

“It is a reminder to all of us that we that we need to have properly planned public expenditure systems, properly planned tax, properly planned arrangements for getting our deficit down,” the Prime Minister said at Tory party conference in Manchester. Earlier, the US stock market had fallen sharply and government tourism centres closed as Congress headed into deadlock.

First-time homebuyers seeking government-backed mortgages could face delays.

The partial government closure has not happened since Bill Clinton faced down Congressional Republicans in early 1996.

On a long day and night in the Capitol, the Senate torpedoed one Republican attempt to tie government financing to changes in the health care law.

House Republicans countered with a second despite unmistakable signs their unity was fraying — and Senate Democrats promptly rejected it, as well.

With Republicans defiant, the House voted 228-199 to re-pass their earlier measure and simultaneously request negotiations with the Senate on a compromise. 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.

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