🔗 Share this article Why Is This American Government Shutdown Distinct (as well as More Intractable)? Government closures have become a recurring element of US politics – however the current situation appears particularly intractable due to political dynamics along with bad blood among the two parties. Some government services are temporarily suspended, and about 750,000 people likely to be placed on unpaid leave since both political parties remain unable to reach consensus regarding budget legislation. Legislative attempts to resolve the impasse have repeatedly failed, and it is hard to see a clear resolution path in this instance as each side – including the nation's leader – can see some merit in maintaining their positions. These are the four ways that make things feel different currently. First, For Democrats, it's about Trump – not just healthcare The Democratic base have insisted over recent periods for their representatives more forcefully fights the Trump administration. Currently the party leadership have an opportunity to demonstrate they have listened. Earlier this year, the Senate's top Democrat faced strong criticism after supporting GOP budget legislation thus preventing a government closure early this year. Now he's holding firm. This is a chance for the Democratic party to show they can take back certain authority from an administration that has moved aggressively with determined action. Opposing the GOP budget proposal comes with political risk that the wider public will grow frustrated with prolonged negotiations and consequences begin to mount. The Democrats are leveraging the budget standoff to put a spotlight on expiring health insurance subsidies together with GOP-backed federal health program reductions for the poor, which are both unpopular. Additionally, they're attempting to curtail executive utilization of his executive powers to rescind or withhold money authorized legislatively, a practice demonstrated with foreign aid and various federal programs. 2. For Republicans, they see potential The administration leader and one of his key officials have made little secret of the fact that they perceive an opening to advance further reductions in government employment that have featured in the Republican's second presidency to date. The nation's leader personally said last week that the shutdown provided him with an "unprecedented opportunity", adding he intended to cut "opposition-supported departments". The White House stated they would face a "challenging responsibility" involving significant workforce reductions to maintain critical federal operations if the shutdown continued. An administration spokesperson said this was just "budgetary responsibility". The extent of possible job cuts is still uncertain, though administration officials has been in discussions with the Office of Management and Budget, the budgeting office, which is headed by the administration's budget director. The administration's financial chief has already announced the suspension of federal funding for regions governed by of the country, including New York City and Illinois' largest city. 3. There's little trust on either side Whereas past government closures have been characterised by extended negotiations among political opponents in an effort to get government services running again, currently there seems minimal cooperative willingness for compromise presently. Instead, there is rancour. Political tensions continued over the weekend, as both sides blaming each other regarding the deadlock's origin. House Speaker from the majority party, accused Democrats of not being serious toward resolution, and holding out over a deal "for electoral protection". Meanwhile, the opposition's chief made similar charges against their counterparts, stating how a majority party commitment to discuss healthcare subsidies after operations resume cannot be trusted. The administration leader personally has escalated tensions by posting a computer-created controversial depiction featuring the opposition leader along with another senior in the House, where the representative is depicted with a large Mexican-style sombrero and facial hair. The representative and other Democrats denounced this as discriminatory, which was denied by the Vice-President. 4. The US economy faces vulnerability Experts project about 40% of the federal workforce – over 800,000 workers – to be put on unpaid leave due to the shutdown. This will reduce consumer expenditure – with broader economic consequences, as environmental permitting, delayed intellectual property processing, interrupted vendor payments along with various forms of government activity connected to commercial interests comes to a halt. The closure additionally introduces fresh instability into an economy currently experiencing disruption by changes ranging from tariffs, previous budget reductions, enforcement actions and artificial intelligence. Economic forecasters project that it could shave as much as 0.2 percentage points off US economic growth for each week it lasts. However, economic activity generally rebounds the majority of interrupted operations after a shutdown ends, similar to recovery patterns after major environmental events. That could be one reason why financial markets have shown limited reaction by the current stand-off. On the other hand, analysts say should administration officials implement proposed significant workforce reductions, the damage could be more long-lasting.