The game of chicken failed. Neither side blinked. Now millions will pay the price.
Americans watched a colossal failure by Congress overnight and the shutdown of their government.
For weeks, the House and the Senate blamed and bickered, each claiming they're standing up for what the public wants.
In
the end, it led to the one outcome nobody wanted -- one that will stop
800,000 Americans from getting paid and could cost the economy about $1
billion a week.
"Agencies
should now execute plans for an orderly shutdown due to the absence of
appropriations," the Office of Management and Budget said in a note it
sent to federal employees.
This
is the first time the government has shut down in nearly 18 years. The
last time it did, the stalemate lasted 21 days during the Clinton
administration.
Now,
the Republican-controlled House and the Democrat-controlled Senate will
try to see if they can reconcile their two versions of the spending
plan at the center of the debate. So far, each has refused to budge on
how to fund the government in the new fiscal year that started Tuesday.
