(Washington) The United States will remain in a situation of budgetary paralysis at least until next week, after the failure on Friday of a new vote in the Senate, still as divided between Republicans and Democrats.
After three days of “Shutdown” who saw hundreds of thousands of federal officials being unemployed, the republican budget proposal has still failed to bring together the democratic voices necessary to end the blocking.
Several hundred thousand civil servants, with functions considered to be “non-ends”, are unemployed and disturbances are expected for public services users.
Another consequence of this situation: the publication of the monthly employment report in September did not take place on Friday, which deprives the first world economy of a major thermometer.
The leaders of the Senate having claimed that they did not intend to sit over the weekend, the vote scheduled for the afternoon was the last opportunity of the week to defuse a crisis that many analysts fear to see.
“It is possible that this” Shutdown “continues for weeks, and not only a few days,” said Andrew Koneschusky, former spokesperson for Senator Chuck Schumer, the chief of the Democrat minority in the Senate.
“For the moment, the two camps are camping on their positions and there is a very little question of compromise. Things can always evolve (…) But for the moment, neither of the two parties seems ready to give in, “he added.
Unpopular situation
The Republicans offered a simple extension of the current budget until the end of November, when the Democrats demanded the extension of public health insurance programs for the most disadvantaged, denouncing clear cuts in health expenses decided by the Trump administration.
The “Shutdowns” are very unpopular in the United States and the presidential camp hopes that a sufficient number of Democratic senators will eventually vote in favor of its text.
Majority in the Senate, the Republicans must convince eight democrats to cross the bar of 60 votes necessary for the adoption of the budget.
Only three had joined them during the last votes.
Each camp strives while waiting to reject the responsibility of blocking on the other: the White House accuses the Democrats of taking the government “hostage” to obtain free medical care for immigrants, a lie according to the opposition, which denounces the refusal of the Republicans to lower the cost of health.
A survey published Thursday by the Washington Post shows that, out of 1000 Americans interviewed, 47 % attribute the responsibility of the “Shutdown” to Donald Trump and the Republicans, and 30 % point the role of the Democrats.
The president threatened to take advantage of the situation to “get rid” of democratic agencies, described as “political scam”.
The latest “Shutdown” in the United States occurred from December 2018 to January 2019, during the republican’s first mandate at the White House. He had lasted 35 days, a record.
