Latest / DEEP INSIGHT / US government shuts down after Senate fails to pass last-ditch funding plan

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US government shuts down after Senate fails to pass last-ditch funding plan · DEEP INSIGHT

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  Speaker 1: Hello, I'm Sally Bondoc. We begin the program with breaking
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  Speaker 1: news the US government to shut down for the first
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  Speaker 1: time in six years after lawmakers failed to reach an
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  Speaker 1: agreement on extending federal spending. So these are live pictures
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  Speaker 1: now from Capital Hill where it is just after midnight
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  Speaker 1: Eastern time. In the Senate on Tuesday, Democrats rejected Republicans'
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  Speaker 1: plans to extend the federal government for at least another
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  Speaker 1: of seven weeks, demanding a reverse to health care cuts
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  Speaker 1: to offer their support. During a shutdown, essential workers continue
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  Speaker 1: as normal, some without pay, but government employees deemed as
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  Speaker 1: non essential are temporarily on unpaid leave. President Trump had
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  Speaker 1: worn that he would use the shutdown to bring in
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  Speaker 1: a wave of mass, irreversible firings of thousands of non
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  Speaker 1: essential federal workers. He also promised to permanently change landmark
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  Speaker 1: healthcare policies brought in by the Obama and Biden administrations.
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  Speaker 2: We can do things during the shutdown that are irreversible,
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  Speaker 2: that are bad for them and irreversible by them, like
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  Speaker 2: cutting vast numbers of people out, cutting things that they like,
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  Speaker 2: cutting programs that they like. So they're taking a risk
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  Speaker 2: by having a shutdown because of the shutdown, we can
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  Speaker 2: do things medically and other ways, including benefits. We can
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  Speaker 2: cut large numbers of people out. We don't want to
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  Speaker 2: do that, but we don't want fraud, waste, and abuse.
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  Speaker 1: Well, as the Senate failed to reach an agreement, the
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  Speaker 1: Republican majority Leader John June and Democrat Leader Chuck Schumer
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  Speaker 1: blamed each other for the impasse.
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  Speaker 3: This is ready to pass right now. This keeps the
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  Speaker 3: government open. This funds the government and protects federal workers
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  Speaker 3: and the American people from the hostage taken that has
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  Speaker 3: become evidently now the Democrat norm.
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  Speaker 4: We stand at the precipice of a government shutdown because
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  Speaker 4: Republicans are not serious about keeping the government open. If
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  Speaker 4: you want one glaring instance of that, Speaker Johnson sent
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  Speaker 4: his people home. They're home right now, even though the
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  Speaker 4: government will include at midnight. There's only one conclusion you
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  Speaker 4: can draw when the Speaker sends the Senate the House home,
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  Speaker 4: that he wants a shutdown. He doesn't want to negotiate.
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  Speaker 1: Well, let's speak to North America correspondent Peter Bows. Hello
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  Speaker 1: to you, Peter. So the shutdown is now begun. What
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  Speaker 1: does that mean?
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  Speaker 5: Well, it means that Essentially, this is a partial shutdown
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  Speaker 5: of government services. Not everything is affected, and of course
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  Speaker 5: essential services emergency services will continue unchanged, but there will
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  Speaker 5: be plenty of services that over a period of time
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  Speaker 5: Americans will notice. I don't think there'll be an immediate
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  Speaker 5: impact on people living their everyday lives, but especially people
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  Speaker 5: visiting this country might notice that some of the tourist
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  Speaker 5: attractions have closed down, the national parks, maybe some of
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  Speaker 5: the monuments that people might have been planning to visit.
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  Speaker 5: And again, over a period of time, the airports could
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  Speaker 5: be affected. This is something that we noticed during the
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  Speaker 5: last shut down almost seven years ago, again during a
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  Speaker 5: Trump administration, the first administration, that the security workers and
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  Speaker 5: air traffic controllers at the airports were working. They were
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  Speaker 5: not being paid during that time until they shut down finished,
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  Speaker 5: and it led during that period of time to some
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  Speaker 5: of those people leaving their jobs because of the hardship
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  Speaker 5: that they were suffering. That led to long delays at
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  Speaker 5: the airports. As I say, what happened immediately, but it
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  Speaker 5: is a possibility over a period of time.
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  Speaker 1: And each side is blaming the other for this shutdown
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  Speaker 1: and the consequences that will follow. How will this be resolved.
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  Speaker 1: Do we know how this political stalemate will be overcome.
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  Speaker 5: Well, there will have to be a compromise on one side,
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  Speaker 5: and at the moment there's no sign sally of that
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  Speaker 5: taking place. And the blame game really started several days
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  Speaker 5: ago because this closer closure of services was beginning to
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  Speaker 5: look inevitable. I would say a couple of days ago.
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  Speaker 5: In fact, during the last few hours that the White
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  Speaker 5: House on their website has had one of those countdown
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  Speaker 5: clocks counting the minutes and the seconds, and as it
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  Speaker 5: turned minute midnight, the message on the website changed to
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  Speaker 5: Democrats have shut down the governments, so very directly the
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  Speaker 5: White House blaming democrats. Democrats are saying that it's the
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  Speaker 5: Republican's fault, and the issue at the heart of this
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  Speaker 5: is healthcare. That Democrats want to see included in the
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  Speaker 5: spending bill provisions to extend some provisions that came with
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  Speaker 5: Obamacare that are due to expire in a couple of
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  Speaker 5: months time at the end of the year. The Republicans
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  Speaker 5: say that they want to have, as they put it,
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  Speaker 5: a clean bill that excludes any external issues like healthcare.
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  Speaker 5: Healthcare and the two sides polls apart, and there will,
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  Speaker 5: as I say, have to be compromised. But certainly, listening
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  Speaker 5: to the statements that we've just heard just now and
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  Speaker 5: what people have been saying in Washington for the last
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  Speaker 5: couple of days, neither side wants to be the first
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  Speaker 5: to back down.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, Peter, thank you very much. Peter Bow's there on
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  Speaker 1: North America Correspondent