A protester covers his mouth with a dollar bill as he joins a demonstration in front of the US Capitol in Washington. AFP Photo/Jewel Samad
MUCH of the vast machinery of the US government has ground to a halt as Democrats and Republicans blame each other for a partial shutdown that closed federal agencies, parks and research facilities across the nation.
Ominously, there are suggestions from leaders in both parties that the shutdown, heading for its second day, could last for weeks and grow to encompass a possible default by the Treasury if Congress fails to raise the nation's debt ceiling.
Speaking at the White House, President Barack Obama accused Republicans of causing the first partial closure in 17 years as part of a non-stop "ideological crusade" to wipe out his signature health care law.
House Speaker John Boehner disagreed.
"The president isn't telling the whole story," he said in an opinion article posted on the USA Today website.
US shutdown
A protester covers his mouth with a dollar bill as he joins a demonstration in front of the US Capitol in Washington. AFP Photo/Jewel Samad
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"The fact is that Washington Democrats have slammed the door on reopening the government by refusing to engage in bipartisan talks."
About 800,000 employees - about a third of the federal workforce - are being forced off the job in the first government shutdown in 17 years, suspending most non-essential federal programs and services.
People classified as essential employees - such as air traffic controllers, Border Patrol agents and most food inspectors - will continue to work.
A US Park Police officer watches at left as a National Park Service employee posts a sign on a barricade closing access to the Lincoln Memorial in Washington.
The shutdown began when Congress missed a midnight deadline on Monday to pass a temporary funding bill, stalled by conservative efforts to push through a delay in Obama's health law.
Stock markets around the world reacted resiliently, with analysts saying significant damage to the US economy was unlikely unless the shutdown lasted more than a few days.
US stocks edged higher on Tuesday, while European stocks mostly recovered after falling the day before the shutdown deadline. Asian stocks were mixed.
The stalemate pits Democrats against a core of conservative small-government activists who have mounted a campaign to seize the must-do budget measure in an effort to dismantle the 2010 health care reform, which is intended to provide coverage for the millions of Americans now uninsured.
A park ranger, who declined to give his name, reads a sign announcing the closing of the Statue of Liberty.
Ironically, a major expansion of the health care law - the very event Republicans had hoped to prevent - was unaffected. Consumers flocked on Tuesday to websites to shop for insurance coverage sold by private companies - with government subsidies available to many to lower their premium costs.
Obama said he was willing to negotiate on a range of issues, but not under threat of repeal of a law enacted in 2010, upheld by the Supreme Court, and debated in a 2012 election that he won over a Republican who wanted to repeal the law.
He warned that the shutdown could hurt a still fragile economy. "That's not how adults operate," he said. "Certainly that's not how our government should operate. . We're better than this. Certainly the American people are a lot better than this."
Looking to ease the pain of the shutdown - or the political fallout - the Republican House offered its newest proposal, this one a series of three votes to restore spending for three popular areas: the Department of Veterans Affairs, the District of Columbia with its landmark monuments, and the National Park Service.
You Tube user 'customneonshirts', provides a humorous take on the possible fallout of the upcoming Government shutdown in America
"That's a reasonable, productive way to move forward," Sen. David Vitter, R-La., said during an outdoor news conference with House and Senate Republicans. But all three bills failed late Tuesday to secure the required two-thirds votes and died in the House.
Senate Democrats insisted on an all-or-nothing approach to reopening the government.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., dismissed the House proposals as "just another wacky idea from the Tea Party-driven Republicans" and an effort to "cherry pick some of the few parts of government that they like".
The White House said it would veto any partial restoration of government funding.
A stop light flashes near the Capitol in Washington.
"The president and the Senate have been clear that they won't accept this kind of game-playing, and if these bills were to come to the president's desk he would veto them," White House spokeswoman Amy Brundage said.
White House press secretary Jay Carney said a "piecemeal approach to funding the government is not a serious approach."
At the Capitol, congressional Democrats and Republicans worked to blame each other for the standoff. The Democratic National Committee created a website and the hashtag GOPShutdown; House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, penned an editorial in USA Today arguing that Obama has refused to negotiate.
The Senate returned to business at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday and promptly killed the House Republicans' previous proposal - a midnight call for a conference committee of representatives and senators to negotiate their way out of the shutdown. The chamber rejected the idea on a party-line 54-46 vote, putting the ball back in the House's court.
The Badlands National Park is one of many closed across America. Scott Olson/Getty Images/AFP
Boehner accused Senate Democrats of prolonging the shutdown, saying they had "slammed the door on reopening the federal government by refusing to talk."
He added, "We hope that Senate Democrats - and President Obama - change course and start working with us on behalf of the American people."
House Republican conferees appointed to the nonexistent conference committee held a news event with a conference table and empty chairs to symbolise the absence of Senate Democrats.
The shutdown failed to achieve the Republican aim of delaying the start of Obama's health care law, though various online marketplace exchanges that went live Tuesday reported glitches. Republicans pointed to the array of problems to bolster their case that the health care law should be stopped.
But Obama, who appeared in the Rose Garden with Americans he says have already benefited from the health care law, attributed some of the problems to demand.
He said more than 1 million people visited the online site before 7 a.m. - five times more users than ever have been on Medicare.gov at one time - and caused it to be sluggish.
"Like every new law, every new product rollout, there are going to be some glitches in the signup process along the way that we will fix," Obama said, noting Apple's new iPhone had glitches but that no one suggested Apple stop selling them.
And he promised, "We're going to speed this up to handle demand that exceeds anything we expected."
There appeared to be few ongoing negotiations to end the dispute. Obama was briefed by senior staff Tuesday morning about the shutdown, but he had not spoken to congressional leaders since Monday evening before the closure. Carney said that Obama expects to speak to them in the coming days.
And, Carney said, Obama will continue to press Congress to reopen the government, meeting with business leaders on Wednesday and visiting a small local construction company on Thursday.
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