WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The U.S. federal government has officially shut down after the Senate failed to reach an agreement on a last-minute spending bill.
The Republicans were pushing to pass a bill to extend government funding without agreeing to include the Democrats' demands in health care sector.
The Democrats pressed for major concessions on Obamacare subsidies, mainly ensuring subsidies for health insurance for the low-income group, and reversing the Trump administration's cuts to Medicaid, in return for their support to pass the funding bill.
Affordable Care Act benefits, also known as Obamacare, will expire within months.
The Bill needs 60 votes to pass in the Republican-controlled Senate, where they have only 53 seats.
Congress needed to consider and pass what is known as a clean CR, or continuing resolution, before the September 30 deadline to avert a shutdown.
Both the GOP and the Democratic Party blamed each other for the shutdown, the first since the end of 2018.
The shutdown means most federal employees are now on unpaid leave.
Earlier, President Donald Trump had threatened mass 'irreversible' firings of federal workers and cuts to health care and social programs if the shutdown went ahead.
'We'd be laying off a lot of people that are going to be very affected,' he said at the White House.
'The last thing we want to do is shut it down, but a lot of good can come down from shutdowns. We can get rid of a lot of things that we didn't want, and they'd be Democrat things,' he added.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer accused Trump of using Americans as 'political pawns.'
'Trump admitted himself that he is using Americans as political pawns. He is admitting that he is doing the firing of people, if God forbid it happens,' he said while addressing the media.
Republicans refused to negotiate on a short-term funding bill and accused Democrats of wanting to give taxpayer funded health care to undocumented immigrants. Schumer called it a 'lie.'
'The federal government, by law that we passed, does not fund health insurance for undocumented immigrants. 'They're lying,' he told reporters.
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