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Senior Democrats have blamed President Donald Trump and Republicans for the United States government shutdown which some analysts say could last longer than previous budget-related closures.
The shutdown — the 15th since 1981 — began Wednesday midnight local time (2pm AEST), with agencies having warned it could slow air travel, suspend scientific research, withhold pay from US troops and lead to the furlough of 750,000 federal workers at a daily cost of US$400 million ($609 million).
Following the shutdown, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer and his counterpart in the House of Representatives, Hakeem Jeffries, heaped blame on Trump and the Republicans, accusing them of shutting down the government because they did “not want to protect the healthcare of the American people”.
“Over the last few days, President Trump’s behavior has become more erratic and unhinged. Instead of negotiating a bipartisan agreement in good faith, he is obsessively posting crazed deepfake videos,” they said in a joint statement.
“The country is in desperate need of an intervention to get out of another Trump shutdown.”
It came hours after the Senate rejected a short-term funding resolution, approved by the House, that would have kept the government running until 21 November.
Trump is yet to publicly comment, but the official White House website was updated to display a ticking timer alongside a banner that reads: “Democrats Have Shut Down The Government”.
Before the shutdown, Trump reached out to his own supporters with a deepfake video showing manipulated images of Schumer appearing to criticise Democrats while Jeffries stood next to him, with a crudely drawn sombrero and mustache imposed over his face.
The US president, whose campaign to radically reshape the federal government is already on track to push out some 300,000 workers by December, had earlier warned congressional Democrats that a shutdown could clear the path for “irreversible” actions including cutting more jobs and programs.
A key sticking point of the shutdown negotiations is healthcare, with Democrats demanding an extension of heath benefits for millions of Americans that are due to expire at the end of this year. Republicans say the issue must be addressed separately.
The US endured its longest government shutdown in December 2018, during Trump’s first term. Democrats objected to US$5.7 billion ($8.69 billion) the president was seeking for a border wall.
Some stoppages of the past have only lasted a few hours. It is unclear how long this one could go on for, but Robert Pape, a political science professor at the University of Chicago, believes the unusually polarised US political climate does not provide a favourable environment for a quick resolution.
“The rules of politics are radically changing and we can’t know for sure where all of this is going to end,” Pape told the Reuters news agency.
“Each side would have to backtrack against tens of millions of truly aggressive supporters, their own constituents, which is going to be really hard for them to do,” he said.
Republicans have majorities in both the House and the Senate, but the 100-seat upper house requires government funding bills to receive 60 votes — seven more than the Republicans control.
— With reporting by the Reuters news agency.
