US Govt Shuts Down As Congress Fails To Reach Spending Agreement Tuesday Oct 1,2013

With members of the Congress still working to reach an agreement on spending, the U.S. government shut down at 12 a.m. ET on Tuesday Oct 1,2013

For the first time in nearly two decades, the federal government staggered into a partial shutdown Monday at midnight after congressional Republicans stubbornly demanded changes in the nation's health care law as the price for essential federal funding and President Barack Obama and Democrats adamantly refused.

The Democratic-led Senate rejected a measure passed by the Republican-led House to work a delay of the health plan into a temporary spending bill needed to keep the government running.

The 54-46 Senate vote came less than 10 hours before a midnight deadline to approve the funding legislation. It is now up to the House to accept a bill that doesn’t delay the health initiative -- which it has refused to do -- or find an alternative acceptable to the Senate

Republicans passionately oppose the plan they have dubbed “Obamacare” as wasteful and restricting freedom by requiring most Americans to have health insurance.

About 800,000 federal workers are being forced off the job in the first government shutdown in 17 years, suspending most nonessential federal programmes and services

National parks, museums in Washington and agencies like NASA and the Environmental Protection Agency nearly closed. The National Zoo in Washington closed to visitors

As Congress gridlocked, US President Barack Obama said a "shutdown will have a very real economic impact on real people, right away," with hundreds of thousands of federal workers furloughed and veterans' centers, national parks, most of the space agency and other government operations shuttered.

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, responded a short while later on the House floor. "The American people don't want a shutdown and neither do I," he said. Yet, he added, the new health care law "is having a devastating impact. ... Something has to be done."

Budget Director Sylvia Burwell issued a directive to federal agencies to "execute plans for an orderly shutdown

The stock market dropped on fears that political deadlock between the White House and a tea party-heavy Republican Party would prevail

The US Govt  is hours away from its first shutdown since 1996

The US Senate has rejected a budget bill passed by the Republican-led House of Representatives, with just hours left to avert a government shutdown.

The Democratic-led Senate voted 54-46 against the bill, which would fund the government only if President Obama's healthcare law were delayed a year.
If no agreement is reached by midnight (04:00 GMT), the government will close all non-essential federal services.
The shutdown would be the first in the US in 17 years

The US government has begun a partial shutdown after the two houses of Congress failed to agree a new budget.

The Republican-led House of Representatives insisted on delaying President Barack Obama's healthcare reform - dubbed Obamacare - as a condition for passing a bill

Whereas Democrats were never likely to make concessions on healthcare reform - Barack Obama's signature achievement and a central issue in 2012 presidential election

Timeline: US budget crisis

• Sep 20,2013: House votes to scrap funding for Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare")
• Sep 30,2013: Congress passes two budget bills coupled to Obamacare, both rejected by Senate
• Oct 1,2013: Key provisions of Obamacare come into force despite shutdown
• Oct 17,2013: Deadline for extending government borrowing limit, or debt ceiling