AMERICA IS CLOSE FOR BUSINESS OR WASHINGTON DUTY POLITICS ?

It is a matter of political wrangling between the Republicans, who control the lower house - the House of Representatives - and the Democrats, who have a majority in the upper house, the Senate.The US government has experienced 18 shutdowns in the past 30 years, with the latest one lasting 21 days under US President Bill Clinton in 1995, costing the economy over $1bn.

Due to disagreements between the two houses over federal government spending, the US Congress failed to pass a budget before the fiscal year ended on 30 September . Ten minutes before midnight on 30 September, the White House budget office issued orders for government offices to start shutting down, with workers told to stay at home without pay.

This affects all "non-essential staff", which by some estimates is more than 700,000 of the total 2.1 million-strong federal workforce.

The US government partially shut down operations on 1 October after Republicans who control the House of Representatives refused to approve a budget, saying they would only do so if Mr Obama's healthcare reform law were delayed or stripped of funding.In a very simple level, the closing of most of the American federal government can be pinned on the ambitions of one man, Speaker of the House John Boehner.

There is little doubt that Mr Boehner, a Republican, could whenever he wants gather enough votes from moderate Republicans and most all Democrats to reopen the government.

Why he is so attached to sticking with such a bruising job is another question. His caucus is balkanised and unruly. This Congress is held in the lowest public esteem since the invention of public opinion polls. And the Republicans are more disliked than the Democrats.On Friday, the US defence contractor Lockheed Martin said it would put 3,000 workers on unpaid leave and many contractor and many bussnes in Washington area have put workers on leave.The announcement followed United Technologies' decision to temporarily lay off 2,000 employees yesterday.

The company, which makes Blackhawk helicopters, said some manufacturing had been halted because there were no government inspectors working to sign off products.


Mr Obama and the Democrats have thus far refused, noting the law was passed in 2010, subsequently approved by the Supreme Court, and was a central issue in the 2012 election which Mr Obama won handily.

At the same time, the Republicans have refused to approve an increase in the US debt limit unless it is accompanied by significant spending cuts and other policy concessions.

Mr Obama maintains Mr Boehner could end the current government showdown by allowing the House to vote on a "clean" budget bill that does not alter the health law, because that could pass with votes from both Democrats and moderate Republicans.

But doing so would risk damaging his standing with the most conservative elements of his caucus, analysts say.




Thanks to President Barack Obama obduracy over his flagship healthcare policy,Obama care Democrats and Republicans have failed to reach agreement in Congress on the federal budget, forcing the US Government to close down for the first time in 17 years, with around 700,000 federal workers being placed on indefinite leave. Washington is center of the government 400,000 of Defence Departemnt will be affected all this employee will hurt bussness in the Washington DC area.

While the White House insists that essential areas of the government, such as the military, will continue to function, the shut down represents yet a further blow to the prestige of the Obama administration at a time when economy just slowly recovering. On Monday, the U.S. government began its first partial shutdown in 17 years after Congress failed to break a partisan deadlock over whether to include provisions to defund President Obama’s health care law in its annual spending bill. If the shutdown lasts through the end of the week—as expected— sliced about 0.1 percentage point from economic growth



The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is preparing to make campaign donations to Republicans that vote to end the government shutdown and raise the debt ceiling, putting it at loggerheads with the Tea Party.

That is significant, because The Chamber provides a financial counter balance to House incumbents that could face a primary challenger if they support a “clean” continuing resolution to fund the operation of the U.S. government or to raise the sovereign debt that can be issued by the United States Treasury to avoid a default.

The worse case scenario is that a default of U.S. Treasury bonds could trigger a global financial crisis. At the very least, it would likely cause the economy to slow and raise interest rates for the government as well as corporations and homeowners. Global stock markets fell and the dollar dropped against major currencies with the prospect of a shutdown on 30 September.

Photo by Flickr user Brooks Elliott



The shutdown will erode consumer confidence and hiring among U.S. businesses, and is costing approximately US$300 million per day in lost economic output. That is not lost on the Chamber of Commerce, which has become an unlikely ally for the Obama Administration over the past week.US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew has said that unless Congress agrees an increase in the debt ceiling by 17 October, Washington will be left with about $30bn (£18.6bn) in cash to meet its obligations - about half the $60bn-a-day needed to make government runing.