WASHINGTON — Hundreds of thousands of federal workers were forced to go home and much of the federal government was shut down Tuesday as some lawmakers predicted the standoff over ObamaCare could last for weeks.
On the first full day that offices were shuttered and services were curtailed, some gloomy legislators said a resolution might not come before the next deadline, Oct. 17, when the government hits its borrowing limit.
“This is now all together,” said Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.).
Monuments from the Lincoln Memorial to the Statue of Liberty shuttered, many government agencies closed their doors, and employees deemed non-essential turned off their BlackBerrys and took home their office plants to await further instructions.
It was an outcome that President Obama and Congress say they wanted to avoid.
But it happened anyway after congressional Republicans tried to tie a continuation in government funding to ObamaCare provisions.
The partial government closure came after Congress failed to pass a funding resolution by midnight Tuesday morning, the end of the fiscal year, sparking the first government shutdown in 17 years.
“This Republican shutdown did not have to happen,” fumed Obama, repeatedly going after House Republicans for trying to force changes in ObamaCare as “ransom” to keep the government fully funded.
Obama blamed an “ideological crusade” of a faction within the GOP as he spoke in the Rose Garden. The president surrounded himself with Americans he said would benefit from ObamaCare, on a day millions logged on to new glitch-prone Web sites to check out the plan.
House Republican leaders unveiled a new strategy Tuesday, after the Senate rejected three attempts on Monday to pass a temporary government-funding measures while repealing or delaying parts of ObamaCare.
The effort would have allowed just a few parts of the government to get temporary funding: national parks, veterans services and the municipal government of Washington, DC. It failed to get the necessary votes.
“It’s just another wacky idea from the Tea Party-driven Republicans,” sad Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), slamming the GOP for trying to cherry-pick the parts of the government they’d like to continue funding.
Democrats said they wouldn’t negotiate until the government was up and running.
“Senate Democrats today slammed the door on reopening the federal government by refusing to talk,” said House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio).
“They seem completely opposed to negotiation or compromise,” agreed Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who helped resolved past budget standoffs but is handcuffed as he faces re-election next month.
Some House Republicans have begun calling for a new strategy, after watching the Senate reject GOP efforts to force concessions from Obama.
Democrats have “all the leverage and we’ve got none,” conceded Sen. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia.
Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.) said, “I think everybody has to lower the decibels, particularly leadership and, by the way, particularly the president.”
Furloughed federal workers won’t see their pay affected right away. If the shutdown continues, employees can expect to be paid on schedule on Oct. 15 for hours worked from Sept. 22 through Sept. 30.
Many federal workers yesterday had to go into their offices for a few hours to perform final tasks, then headed home. They’re prohibited from doing their jobs on a volunteer basis during a shutdown.