The fear of a federal paralysis in the United States has become a certainty at midnight, 6 in the morning in Italy, when the shutdown has begun, the partial closure of federal agencies. It's the first time this has happened since 1996, when Bill Clinton was in office. The agreement, as had appeared clear since the American afternoon when the Senate had rejected the text previously approved by the House, was not found even in the evening, when after a series of votes the Republicans gave up trying to try again to pass the text already blocked several times.
A few minutes before midnight, the Office of Management and Budget of the White House therefore issued a note addressed to federal agencies to request the initiation of procedures for "the execution of plans to suspend their activities in an orderly manner" and the President Barack Obama signed a bill ensuring that active duty Army and Coast Guard servicemen continue to get paid even during the shutdown.
"We are jeopardizing the well-being of Americans and this must not happen, the shutdown is completely avoidable", said the president from the White House, underlining that the federal paralysis "will put a spanner in the works of the American economy and will immediately a real impact on people”.
The point on which the Democrats and the Republicans cannot agree is Obamacare: the president's party wants a 'clean' budget to be approved, without amendments on other issues, the opponents want clauses to be included which postpone at least one year the implementation of the health reform, or at least some parts of it. "I'm always willing to work to improve health care reform," Obama said, explaining however that Obamacare shouldn't be the starting point for "demanding a ransom."
