TEHRAN, December 24 - Washington witnessed its second day of gridlock caused by US government shutdown with the White House budget director saying it could even stretches into the new year and the next Congress.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) - A budget deal to end the partial shutdown -- which forced several key US agencies to cease operations starting on Saturday -- appears a distant prospect as Congress adjourned for the weekend ahead of Christmas.
The year-end holidays have masked many of the shutdown's visible effects, but they will gradually spread.
Visitors to the capital's park-like National Mall, home to attractions including war memorials and the towering Washington Monument, were among the first to feel it.
Several criticized the shutdown, which added to an air of chaos in a capital still reeling from Defense Secretary Jim Mattis's resignation last week over Trump policies.
It is the third partial government shutdown of the year, even though Trump's Republican Party still controls both the House of Representatives and the Senate.
The government began the partial shutdown after Republican senators failed to gain the votes needed to approve $5 billion for President Donald Trump's proposed border wall on the US-Mexico border, which is fiercely opposed by Democratic Party lawmakers.
Trump sought to blame Democrats for the shutdown, who responded by reminding him that he had said last week he would be “proud” to shut down key parts of the federal government in order to get funding for the wall.
Frantic negotiations by lawmakers at both chambers of Congress on Friday failed to reach a deal, sending parts of the federal government into paralysis at midnight.
The shutdown was the latest evidence of dysfunction in Washington and does not bode well for next year, when Democrats will have a stronger hand as they take control of the House of Representatives.
Source: AFP
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