On September 30, 2013, the bipartisan negotiations in the United States broke down, and the federal government officially "closed" on October 1.
The US government shutdown means that the budget appropriation cannot be approved and the US government has no money to spend.
Because the power of budget allocation is in the hands of the US Congress, if Congress does not pass the budget, it means that the government cannot spend money, many projects that need to spend money cannot continue, and employees' wages will be difficult to pay. Vital work will continue, but some less urgent work will be suspended until Congress agrees to finance the government. For example, the administrator of the National Park will close all national parks. Most federal workers given temporary leave will leave their offices within four hours of Tuesday morning.
The reason why the U.S. government closed this time is that the Republican controlled U.S. House of Representatives refused to fully pass the spending bill submitted by the Senate last Sunday (29th), and passed a resolution calling for the implementation of Obama's health care plan one year later. Since the Senate and house of Representatives failed to reach a consensus on the spending bill on Monday (30th) us time, the US government has temporarily closed in the early morning of Tuesday local time (noon on October 1 Beijing time).
The reason for this is related to the political positions of the two parties. The Republican Party has always opposed big government. The party advocates the liberal economy and believes that it is not advisable to have more government deficits and more spending;
The Democratic Party is more concerned about some social improvements, such as the medical reform, which require the government to spend money. Therefore, the budget should be made more. In addition, the Democratic Party is worried that drastic cuts in government spending will affect the pace of economic recovery.
From a larger perspective, this shutdown is actually a negotiation, and closing the government is a bargaining chip. The health care plan is a law created by the Democratic Obama administration. Because the house of Representatives has the final say, the Republican threat is not to postpone the bill for a year, but to veto the budget. The Senate insisted on the health care bill, and the two sides could not reach an agreement.
In history, from 1977 to 1996, the federal government closed 17 times, almost once a year on average, for a minimum of one day and a maximum of 21 days. From 1995 to 1996, during the Clinton administration, it closed down twice, resulting in hundreds of thousands of government employees being dismissed and "unemployed".