Still fighting over the fate of President Barack Obama's signature health care reform law the Democratic controlled Senate and the Republican controlled House were unable to reach a compromise to pass a budget to keep the American government funding; as of midnight the government was shut down for the first time in 17 years, according to the Washington Post.
With only hours remaining to come to a compromise President Obama spoke from the White House and urged the House to pass a "clean" budget without a rider that would defund or delay the Affordable Care Act. The GOP controlled House responded by passing a budget that would delay the individual mandate of the health care law by a year, according to USA Today.
"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 re-fight the results of the last election," President Obama.
The inability of Congress to come to a compromise means that 800,000 federal workers will be furloughed and over a million will still have to go to work but will not be getting paid. President Obama signed a measure late on Monday that would allow for the military to get paid, according to the New York Times.
While the Republican controlled House stayed united in their votes toward a budget divisions between the tea party faction that advocated the shutdown and some of the more moderate Republicans were beginning to show.
"You have this group that keeps saying somehow if you're not with them, you're for Obamacare," Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., said. "If you're not with exactly their plan, exactly what they want to do, then you're somehow for Obamacare, and it's just getting a little old. It's moronic to shut down the government over this."
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., placed all of the blame squarely on the shoulders of House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, for failing to convince his party to drop the crusade against the health care bill to keep the government funded, according to the New York Times.
"The responsibility for this Republican government shutdown will rest squarely on his shoulders," Reid said about Boehner. "You know with a bully you cannot let them slap you around, because they slap you around today, they slap you five or six times tomorrow. We are not going to be bullied."
Neither side appears as if they are ready to accept any sort of compromise and it appears as if the shutdown could last for weeks. The previous government shutdown lasted for 21 days and is credited for enraging voters and prompting Bill Clinton's reelection.
