US shutdown looms over health row

The US has a matter of hours to avoid a government shutdown after Republicans pressed ahead with their attempt to unravel the biggest legislative win of Barack Obama’s presidency.

Sharp divisions in Congress pushed America closer to a shutdown tomorrow as Republicans in the House of Representatives, which they control, voted 231 to 192 to advance a temporary measure to fund government but which delays the implementation of Mr Obama's healthcare law by one year.

The vote in the early hours of yesterday morning after a day of heated debate kicks the Bill back up to the Democrat-led Senate, which had already voted last Friday to strip the stopgap budgetary measure of a provision defunding the Affordable Care Act, putting the US government on the verge of a shutdown.

“The American people don’t want a government shutdown, and they don’t want Obamacare,” House Republican leaders said in a statement.

“We will do our job and send this bill over, and then it’s up to the Senate to pass it and stop a government shutdown.”

The Democratic leader of the Senate, Harry Reid, who has appeared at press conferences with a countdown clock to the shutdown to put pressure on Republicans, has vowed that the chamber would reject the Republicans' latest attempt to detail the law, better known as Obamacare.

The Senate is due to meet again this afternoon at 2pm, giving Congress just 10 hours to try to find a way of proceeding with the roll-out of the law but continuing to fund government beyond the September 30th fiscal year-end.

Stalemate
If Congress cannot agree a spending Bill before the end of the fiscal year at midnight tonight, the stalemate will result in about a third of government shutting down, sending home about 800,000 of 2.1 million government employees. About 1.4 million military personnel will see their pay delayed.

"This is an astoundingly irresponsible way to govern," said US secretary of defence Chuck Hagel, blasting his former Republican colleagues in Congress.

The White House warned Republicans before the House voted that the president would veto the Republican Bill.

"Any member of the Republican Party who votes for this Bill is voting for a shutdown," said Mr Obama's spokesman, Jay Carney. The US Treasury has warned it will run out of cash and be unable to borrow unless Congress approves an increase in the so-called debt ceiling, the amount the US can borrow, on October 17th.