00:00Hello, I'm Sally Bondock. We begin the program with breaking news.
00:04The U.S. government has shut down for the first time in six years
00:08after lawmakers failed to reach an agreement on extending federal spending.
00:13So these are live pictures now from Capitol Hill,
00:16where it is just after midnight Eastern time.
00:20In the Senate on Tuesday, Democrats rejected Republicans' plans
00:24to extend the federal government for at least another seven weeks,
00:28demanding a reverse to health care cuts to offer their support.
00:34During a shutdown, essential workers continue as normal, some without pay,
00:40but government employees deemed as non-essential are temporarily on unpaid leave.
00:48President Trump had warned that he would use the shutdown
00:52to bring in a wave of mass irreversible firings
00:55of thousands of non-essential federal workers.
00:59He also promised to permanently change landmark health care policies
01:03brought in by the Obama and Biden administrations.
01:08We can do things during the shutdown that are irreversible,
01:12that are bad for them and irreversible by them,
01:15like cutting vast numbers of people out,
01:18cutting things that they like, cutting programs that they like.
01:20So they're taking a risk by having a shutdown,
01:23because because of the shutdown, we can do things medically and other ways,
01:28including benefits.
01:30We can cut large numbers of people out.
01:33We don't want to do that, but we don't want fraud, waste and abuse.
01:38Well, as the Senate failed to reach an agreement,
01:41the Republican Majority Leader John June and Democrat Leader Chuck Schumer
01:45blamed each other for the impasse.
01:48This is ready to pass right now.
01:51This keeps the government open.
01:53This funds the government and protects federal workers
01:56and the American people from the hostage-taking
01:59that has become, evidently, now the Democrat norm.
02:04We stand at the precipice of a government shutdown
02:07because Republicans are not serious about keeping the government open.
02:12If you want one glaring instance of that,
02:16Speaker Johnson sent his people home.
02:19They're home right now,
02:20even though the government will collude at midnight.
02:22There's only one conclusion you can draw
02:25when the Speaker sends the House home,
02:29that he wants a shutdown.
02:30He doesn't want to negotiate.
02:32Well, let's speak to our North America correspondent, Peter Bowes.
02:35Hello to you, Peter.
02:37So the shutdown is now begun.
02:39What does that mean?
02:43Well, it means that essentially this is a partial shutdown of government services.
02:48Not everything is affected.
02:50And, of course, essential services, emergency services,
02:53will continue unchanged.
02:55But there will be plenty of services
02:57that over a period of time Americans will notice.
03:00I don't think there will be an immediate impact on people living their everyday lives.
03:05But especially people visiting this country might notice
03:08that some of the tourist attractions have closed down,
03:12the national parks,
03:13maybe some of the monuments that people might have been planning to visit.
03:16And, again, over a period of time,
03:18the airports could be affected.
03:21This is something that we noticed during the last shutdown
03:23almost seven years ago,
03:25again, during a Trump administration,
03:27the first administration that the security workers
03:30and air traffic controllers at the airports were working.
03:34They were not being paid during that time
03:37until the shutdown finished.
03:38And it led during that period of time
03:40to some of those people leaving their jobs
03:42because of the hardship that they were suffering.
03:45That led to long delays at the airports.
03:47As I say, it won't happen immediately,
03:49but it is a possibility over a period of time.
03:51And each side is blaming the other for this shutdown
03:56and the consequences that will follow.
04:00How will this be resolved?
04:01Do we know how this political stalemate will be overcome?
04:07Well, there will have to be a compromise on one side.
04:10And at the moment, there's no sign, Sally, of that taking place.
04:14And the blame game really started several days ago
04:17because this closure of services
04:19was beginning to look inevitable, I would say,
04:22a couple of days ago.
04:23In fact, during the last few hours,
04:25the White House on their website
04:27has had one of those countdown clocks
04:29counting the minutes and the seconds.
04:32And as it turned midnight,
04:34the message on the website changed
04:36to Democrats have shut down the government.
04:39So very directly, the White House blaming Democrats.
04:43Democrats are saying that it's the Republicans' fault.
04:45And the issue at the heart of this is health care.
04:48The Democrats want to see included in the spending bill
04:51provisions to extend some provisions
04:54that came with Obamacare
04:56that are due to expire in a couple of months' time
04:59at the end of the year.
05:00The Republicans say that they want to have,
05:03as they put it,
05:04a clean bill that excludes any external issues
05:09like health care.
05:11And the two sides poles apart.
05:13And there will, as I say, have to be compromised.
05:16But certainly listening to the statements
05:18that we've just heard just now
05:20and what people have been saying in Washington
05:22for the last couple of days,
05:24neither side wants to be the first to back down.
05:26OK, Peter, thank you very much.
05:28Peter Bowes there, our North America correspondent.
05:30Thank you very much.
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