The government is thus threatened with financial paralysis as of midnight (local time), the start of the new budget year. From tuesday on, up to 800,000 state employees had to be laid off without pay, and many offices and institutions remained closed. Health care and safety, however, would remain guaranteed, he said in washington.
U.S. President barack obama made it clear once again monday that he will not compromise on his health care reform, which conservatives are demanding as a condition for transitional funding. He urged republicans on the sidelines of a meeting with israeli leader benjamin netanyahu to put aside short-term political calculations and do "what’s right".
Conversely, leading republicans again accused obama and the democrats of a lack of willingness to talk. According to a CNN poll, 46 percent blame conservatives for the mess, 36 percent blame obama.
The democratic-controlled senate rejected a bill from the republican-dominated house of representatives on monday afternoon (local time). It had kept the government financially afloat for the time being, but at the same time provided for the implementation of the core of obama’s health care reform to be postponed for a year. This is also unacceptable for the president and his democrats.
The ball was thus once again in the field of deputies. To avert a financial standstill, they had to pass an emergency budget bill by the deadline – without any link to health care reform. But this was considered increasingly unlikely on monday.
The main part of the reform, designed to give millions of previously uninsured americans access to health insurance, goes into effect tuesday. Especially the right wing of the republicans rage that "obamacare" is bad for the economy and too expensive for the burger. Countless attempts to invalidate it in congress have failed. The supreme court declared the law constitutional last year.
Even republican house speaker john boehner, after losing the presidential election last november, declared that reform is now "the law of the land". But now he bowed to pressure from the right-wing populist tea party movement to make a new attack on "obamacare" and tie it to budget negotiations.
The white house, the democrats and also some republicans reject the attempt as unreasonable. Democratic senator richard durbin complains that his party is being held "at gunpoint". Obama spoke of "extremists in congress" with regard to the tea party group.
The u.S. Has faced several administrative shutdowns in recent years. But they were still able to prevent it at the last minute through a compromise between the parties. Even an agreement this time only had a suspensive effect, as the transitional budget would expire again in a few weeks’ time. Then negotiations had to be held again.
The last time there was no valid U.S. Budget was several times between 1995 and january 1996. At that time bill clinton was president. The shutdown lasted a total of 26 days. Hundreds of thousands of state employees were released without pay. But observers are even more concerned about the fact that the congress is scheduled to last until 17 december. October must also agree on an increase in the debt ceiling. The credit limit is currently 16.7 billion dollars (12.4 billion euros) and, according to finance minister jack lew, will be exhausted by that date. Without a timely increase, the u.S. Would no longer be allowed to take on debt and would be virtually insolvent. Experts fear catastrophic economic consequences in this case.
Obama also warned on monday of such a disaster. The u.S. Was the foundation of the world economy and the global financial system, he said. This is not something to be trifled with.