From USA Today:
"Partial government shutdown begins after Trump, lawmakers fail to reach border wall deal"
Parts of the federal government shut down early Saturday for the third time this year after a last-ditch effort by Republicans and Democrats failed to resolve a budget standoff. House and Senate lawmakers, who could not cobble together a compromise late Friday, are scheduled to return to work at noon on Saturday to presumably resume negotiations among themselves and the White House. But no immediate deal seems certain. What is certain is that nine federal departments and several smaller agencies ran out of funding at midnight Friday, requiring them to close their doors, and put more than 380,000 federal workers on furlough and force another 420,000 employees to work without pay. The good news is that only one-fourth of the government will be impacted by the shutdown because most federal agencies already have been funded by Congress. The bad news is for those agencies who have not received funding beyond the midnight deadline. They include the FBI, the Bureau of Prisons, Customs and Border Patrol and the IRS, as well as national parks and forests. In all, the nine departments impacted by the shutdown are Agriculture, Commerce, Justice, Homeland Security, Interior, State, Transportation, Treasury and Housing and Urban Development. It was not clear how long the standoff would last, but President Donald Trump said he was "totally prepared for a very long shutdown." Trump delayed an end-of-year vacation to southern Florida and decided to remain in Washington. Late Friday, Vice President Mike Pence and other White House officials tried to come up with a way to resolve the impasse and help the president secure his wish for $5 billion in border wall funding. Trump sought to place the blame for the shutdown on Democrats, who refused to go along with his demand for $5 billion to build a wall along the nation’s southern border. “The Democrats now own the shutdown!” he tweeted, marking a reversal from a week ago when he boasted that he’d be “proud” to shut down the government and would accept the blame. “You will not get your wall,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York shot back from the Senate floor. Schumer and other Democrats put the responsibility for the Trump squarely on Trump, arguing that he had reneged on a promise to sign a short-term spending bill that would have funded the government through Feb. 8. That bill, which passed the Senate, would have put off until next year a decision on border wall funding, drawing Trump’s ire and dooming the measure’s fate in the House. A separate bill approved by the House also would have funded the government through Feb. 8 but would have provided $5.7 billion for a border wall and nearly $8 billion in disaster relief. That bill failed to get a vote in the Senate, essentially guaranteeing a government shutdown.
^ It is always a disgrace when the world's only Super Power has to shut down it's Federal Government because of lack of funding. On top of that its the real impact that the Shutdown has on the Federal employees and civilians. While I am glad the US Military is not directly affected by this current Shutdown it is still a shame that several hundred thousands of people now can't go to work and won't get paid and several hundred thousands more people have to continue working, but without pay. Who is to blame for this current Shutdown? Trump is clearly at the very top of the list along with the Republicans and the Democrats close behind him. All sides need to put their own agendas aside and start putting Americans (especially those directed affected) first. ^
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