The US government has shut down for the first time in almost seven years as politicians hold firm in a stand-off over federal funding.<\/p>\n
The shutdown began just after midnight on Wednesday, local time, following Democrats and Republicans in the Senate voting down each other’s stopgap measures to keep funding flowing.<\/p>\n
While shutdowns have been a possibility since 1976, when Congress introduced the modern budget process, they’ve been a relatively rare occurrence.<\/p>\n
Here’s a look at how previous shutdowns have played out.\u00a0<\/p>\n
What is a government shutdown?\u00a0<\/p>\n
It’s when government agencies across the nation are temporarily shuttered and staff are furloughed due to a lapse in federal funding.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The US government shutdown has begun. Here’s what that means<\/a><\/p>\n Here’s a quick rundown on what US government shutdowns are and why they happen.<\/p>\n Congress must pass an appropriations bill for funding to be allocated, but this process is being held up in the Senate.\u00a0<\/p>\n Democrats want an extension for tax credits that make healthcare more affordable added to the budget, but Republicans aren’t willing to make the compromise.\u00a0<\/p>\n While Republicans currently hold the majority in the House of Representatives and the Senate, they can’t pass the bill on their own.\u00a0<\/p>\n That’s because they need 60 votes in the Senate to advance the bill to a vote. They’re currently seven seats short.\u00a0<\/p>\n How long did previous shutdowns last?\u00a0<\/p>\n Most shutdowns are relatively short affairs.\u00a0<\/p>\n Half have lasted just three days or less, and mostly extended over a weekend, when the impact of reduced government operations is minimal.\u00a0<\/p>\n But there’s no guarantee the current shutdown will be over that fast.\u00a0<\/p>\n The longest shutdown in history, which was also the most recent, occurred under Donald Trump for 35 days from 2018 to 2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n That was almost two weeks longer than any that had come before.\u00a0<\/p>\n How are shutdowns resolved?<\/p>\n The short answer is through negotiation.\u00a0<\/p>\n That can be through the party in power agreeing to the opposition’s demand, the opposition conceding, or by both parties agreeing to temporarily extend government funding while they continue talks.\u00a0<\/p>\n For Mr Trump’s marathon 35-day shutdown from 2018 to 2019, it was the latter.\u00a0<\/p>\n The stalemate broke out because the president was seeking to have a $US5.7 billion carve-out for constructing the US-Mexico border wall included in the appropriations bill.\u00a0<\/p>\n A bitter blame game is pushing the US towards the precipice<\/a><\/p>\n In a country with more guns than people, an increasingly violent and threatening public discourse is creating serious dangers.<\/p>\n Democrats argued it would be a waste of public funds and instead proposed measures that would bolster existing border security measures.\u00a0<\/p>\n Eventually, Congress agreed to reopen the government as both parties continued their negotiations \u2014 a plan Mr Trump endorsed,<\/a> despite not securing money for the wall.<\/p>\n A source told CNN<\/a> at the time that a “contributing catalyst” to ending the shutdown was the rise in air traffic controllers calling in sick, which was causing safety risks and flight delays and cancellations.\u00a0<\/p>\n The shutdown of 2013, which occurred during Barack Obama’s second term, was sparked by disagreements over health.\u00a0<\/p>\n Republicans were pushing for measures that would delay funding for the Affordable Care Act, which sought to make health insurance more affordable for Americans.\u00a0<\/p>\n Mr Obama and Democrats refused to agree, as they would have given Republicans more time to make changes to the act.\u00a0<\/p>\n The government shut down for 16 days as a result of the impasse, until Democrats agreed to apply stricter income verification rules.<\/p>\n How do shutdowns effect the economy?\u00a0<\/p>\n Shutdowns usually don’t leave huge marks on the US economy.\u00a0<\/p>\n Even the longest shutdown was a blip on the radar, with the Congressional Budget Office estimating<\/a> it shaved just 0.02 per cent of the 2019 US gross domestic product.\u00a0<\/p>\n But the impact will be felt by the federal workforce.\u00a0<\/p>\n