WASHINGTON: The sun rose in the East, flights international and domestic are landing, power and water are still flowing through outlets, gas stations, stores, and malls opened, teachers, soldiers, teachers, policemen, firefighters and mailmen continue with their job, and traffic is sailing through lights that work. It is business as usual for the most part on Day One of the US government's shutdown. It is only when you head to the Statue of Liberty or the Smithsonian Museum or various National Parks (''CLOSED''), or call in to check on some government programs or payouts (voicemail), that you feel the first impact of the government shutdown that is expected to get worse the longer it lasts.
Driven by fundamental differences in ideology, including the role of government in people's lives, and political and electoral compulsions, Republicans and Democrats fought each other to a legislative standstill at midnight on Monday. Because they could not agree on appropriating money to keep the US government running in the new fiscal year starting October 1, as stipulated in the Constitution, the administration began shutting down. Minutes before midnight, President Obama's budget director Sylvia Matthews Burwell issued guidance to various government agencies, directing them to execute their plans for an orderly shutdown of the government.
"Unfortunately, we do not have a clear indication that Congress will act in time for the President to sign a continuing resolution before the end of the day tomorrow, October 1, 2013,'' the government memo said. ''Therefore, agencies should now execute plans for an orderly shutdown due to the absence of appropriations.'' Some 800,000 government employees deemed non-essential were furloughed. Some staff deemed essential were asked to work without pay. National parks, memorials, monuments, including tours of the US Capitol, were closed, as part of the first steps. Foreign aid flow was frozen.
It's not all that dire yet. The two American astronauts in the International Space Station will still be connected to Nasa although most of its 18,000 employees will gradually be furloughed; the panda-cam monitoring the giant red panda in the National Zoo went blank but zoo officials said the animals will continue to be cared for with a pared-down staff; and the state department and various US embassies across the world will continue to process passport and visa applications, using reserve funds and essential staff. By no stretch of imagination is it ''lights out.''
But the longer this lasts, the more it will start to bite not just the United States itself, but the international community too.
In fact, that is the pitch the Democrat-run White House adopted on Tuesday morning in an effort to shame Republicans into blinking, saying hardliners in the opposition party are threatening the very foundation of the global economy.
"What we see happening with this Republican strategy is a willingness to threaten the very foundation of the world's greatest economic power, the economy that basically stabilizes the entire world economic system, and that is a very risky proposition,'' presidential spokesman Jay Carney said in one TV show, as both sides duked it out on air even as workaday Americans gasped in disbelief at the whole spectacle.
Polls showed approval rating for Congress unsurprisingly plunged to 10 per cent, colored doubtless by the fact that the lawmakers and high executives in the government (deemed ''essential'' workers) won't be affected by the shutdown and will continue to be paid. But most Americans who live from paycheck to paycheck are seething with anger.
Meanwhile, the much-debated Obamacare health initiative — centerpiece of the political and legislative acrimony — opened on Tuesday morning even as government shut down. Millions of uninsured Americans logged into to register and shop for health insurance at online health exchanges as mandated under Affordable Care Act. Predictably, many of the systems crashed, leading critics to dub the fiasco ''Obamacrash.'' But the President himself had warned that it would take weeks, perhaps months, before the initial wrinkles are smoothed out.
Estimates of what the government shut down will cost varies depending on how it is computed -- from $ 1 billion a day to $ 1 billion a week. But more worrisome is the loss of US prestige, including its showcasing of itself as a peerless democracy worthy of being emulated by the rest of the world. ''If these people can't even get basic legislation passed without bringing the country to a grinding halt and threatening the world economy, how will they continue to be regarded as a superpower? And what will be the consequence? '' one diplomat wondered.
Others, most notably former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, made light of the impasse, pointing out that the government has shut down 17 times since 1976, and that such gridlocks are the lifeblood of democracy. It is well within the right of lawmakers to hold the government accountable and block the business of governance if it disagreed with the executive, it was argued in terms that are all too familiar in India's raucous parliamentary democracy.
But Democrats strenuously objected to the characterization, and in fact argued in terms that raised the heat of the debate, comparing Republicans to terrorists and hostage takers. PresidentObama himself used the word ransom while standing his ground, refusing to negotiate any dilution of the so-called Obamacare health initiative that opened on Tuesday morning even as the government shut down.
"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,'' Obama told hardline Republican lawmakers, who throughout Monday and into the wee hours of Tuesday kept sending proposals from the House (which they control) offering to fund the government if it offered concessions on Obamacare. The Democrat-controlled Senate kept swatting down the proposals.
"I will not negotiate," Obama said in one radio interview in the morning. ''This perpetual cycle of brinksmanship has to end.''
Both sides are clearly hunkering down for Congressional polls due next November, with their posturing on Obamacare largely dictated by electoral math. But Republicans, particularly the moderate leadership, is getting it in the neck from both from Democrats and the liberal East Coast public (who dominate the media discourse), who think they are unable to stand-up to the more extreme wing of the part.
"One faction of one party, in one house of Congress, in one branch of government doesn't get to shut down the entire government just to refight the results of an election,'' Obama said in a pointed dig at the Republican leadership and its problems with Tea Party hardliners. ''Keeping the people's government open is not a concession to me. Keeping vital services running and hundreds of thousands of Americans on the job is not something you 'give' to the other side. It's our basic responsibility.''
The expectation is that the Republican leadership will finally blink rather than blindly take the country where it has never gone before - down into the abyss.
Driven by fundamental differences in ideology, including the role of government in people's lives, and political and electoral compulsions, Republicans and Democrats fought each other to a legislative standstill at midnight on Monday. Because they could not agree on appropriating money to keep the US government running in the new fiscal year starting October 1, as stipulated in the Constitution, the administration began shutting down. Minutes before midnight, President Obama's budget director Sylvia Matthews Burwell issued guidance to various government agencies, directing them to execute their plans for an orderly shutdown of the government.
"Unfortunately, we do not have a clear indication that Congress will act in time for the President to sign a continuing resolution before the end of the day tomorrow, October 1, 2013,'' the government memo said. ''Therefore, agencies should now execute plans for an orderly shutdown due to the absence of appropriations.'' Some 800,000 government employees deemed non-essential were furloughed. Some staff deemed essential were asked to work without pay. National parks, memorials, monuments, including tours of the US Capitol, were closed, as part of the first steps. Foreign aid flow was frozen.
It's not all that dire yet. The two American astronauts in the International Space Station will still be connected to Nasa although most of its 18,000 employees will gradually be furloughed; the panda-cam monitoring the giant red panda in the National Zoo went blank but zoo officials said the animals will continue to be cared for with a pared-down staff; and the state department and various US embassies across the world will continue to process passport and visa applications, using reserve funds and essential staff. By no stretch of imagination is it ''lights out.''
But the longer this lasts, the more it will start to bite not just the United States itself, but the international community too.
In fact, that is the pitch the Democrat-run White House adopted on Tuesday morning in an effort to shame Republicans into blinking, saying hardliners in the opposition party are threatening the very foundation of the global economy.
"What we see happening with this Republican strategy is a willingness to threaten the very foundation of the world's greatest economic power, the economy that basically stabilizes the entire world economic system, and that is a very risky proposition,'' presidential spokesman Jay Carney said in one TV show, as both sides duked it out on air even as workaday Americans gasped in disbelief at the whole spectacle.
Polls showed approval rating for Congress unsurprisingly plunged to 10 per cent, colored doubtless by the fact that the lawmakers and high executives in the government (deemed ''essential'' workers) won't be affected by the shutdown and will continue to be paid. But most Americans who live from paycheck to paycheck are seething with anger.
Meanwhile, the much-debated Obamacare health initiative — centerpiece of the political and legislative acrimony — opened on Tuesday morning even as government shut down. Millions of uninsured Americans logged into to register and shop for health insurance at online health exchanges as mandated under Affordable Care Act. Predictably, many of the systems crashed, leading critics to dub the fiasco ''Obamacrash.'' But the President himself had warned that it would take weeks, perhaps months, before the initial wrinkles are smoothed out.
Estimates of what the government shut down will cost varies depending on how it is computed -- from $ 1 billion a day to $ 1 billion a week. But more worrisome is the loss of US prestige, including its showcasing of itself as a peerless democracy worthy of being emulated by the rest of the world. ''If these people can't even get basic legislation passed without bringing the country to a grinding halt and threatening the world economy, how will they continue to be regarded as a superpower? And what will be the consequence? '' one diplomat wondered.
Others, most notably former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, made light of the impasse, pointing out that the government has shut down 17 times since 1976, and that such gridlocks are the lifeblood of democracy. It is well within the right of lawmakers to hold the government accountable and block the business of governance if it disagreed with the executive, it was argued in terms that are all too familiar in India's raucous parliamentary democracy.
But Democrats strenuously objected to the characterization, and in fact argued in terms that raised the heat of the debate, comparing Republicans to terrorists and hostage takers. PresidentObama himself used the word ransom while standing his ground, refusing to negotiate any dilution of the so-called Obamacare health initiative that opened on Tuesday morning even as the government shut down.
"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,'' Obama told hardline Republican lawmakers, who throughout Monday and into the wee hours of Tuesday kept sending proposals from the House (which they control) offering to fund the government if it offered concessions on Obamacare. The Democrat-controlled Senate kept swatting down the proposals.
"I will not negotiate," Obama said in one radio interview in the morning. ''This perpetual cycle of brinksmanship has to end.''
Both sides are clearly hunkering down for Congressional polls due next November, with their posturing on Obamacare largely dictated by electoral math. But Republicans, particularly the moderate leadership, is getting it in the neck from both from Democrats and the liberal East Coast public (who dominate the media discourse), who think they are unable to stand-up to the more extreme wing of the part.
"One faction of one party, in one house of Congress, in one branch of government doesn't get to shut down the entire government just to refight the results of an election,'' Obama said in a pointed dig at the Republican leadership and its problems with Tea Party hardliners. ''Keeping the people's government open is not a concession to me. Keeping vital services running and hundreds of thousands of Americans on the job is not something you 'give' to the other side. It's our basic responsibility.''
The expectation is that the Republican leadership will finally blink rather than blindly take the country where it has never gone before - down into the abyss.
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