(France24) Washington inched its way toward a government shutdown on Monday as it neared a midnight deadline with rivalling lawmakers entrenched in bitter bickering and blaming each other for the impasse related to Obama’s signature health care reform.
The US Senate is scheduled to meet Monday just hours before the deadline, and Majority Leader Harry Reid has already promised that Democrats will kill a Republican-run House of Representatives proposal to delay by a year key parts of Obama’s law.
The Republican plan also would repeal a tax on medical devices as part of an emergency spending bill that would allow the government to keep its payment obligations.
In the event lawmakers blow the Monday deadline, about 800,000 federal workers would be forced off the job without pay on October 1. Some critical services such as patrolling the borders, inspecting meat and controlling air traffic would continue.
Republicans and Democrats have avoided looming shutdowns in previous years by reaching last-minute deals but in a sign that a compromise was still far away, the House unanimously approved a bill early on Sunday to keep paying US soldiers in the event the government runs out of money.
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