US girds for another day of govt shutdown
The colossal machinery of the US government will be largely paralysed by the rancorous dispute over President Barack Obama's healthcare law, which conservatives want to gut.
In the first such shutdown in 17 years, the White House and Republicans are digging in for an extended struggle with no solution, or serious dialogue to find one, in sight.
National monuments will be barricaded again on Wednesday for a second day in America's latest crippling political crisis which has shut US war cemeteries in Europe and sent hundreds of thousands of federal workers home without pay.
President Barack Obama accused conservatives in the House of Representatives of waging an "ideological crusade" by making government funding conditional on gutting his landmark health care law.
His top foe, Republican House Speaker John Boehner, says Obama is pursuing a "scorched earth" policy by refusing to negotiate, as the rhetoric hit new heights and hopes for a swift end to the standoff faded.
The president was in feisty form at a White House event marking the rollout of a key portion of Obamacare, which turned into an extended taunt at Republicans for failing to halt implementation of the sweeping law.
"This Republican shutdown did not have to happen - I want every American to understand why it did happen," Obama said.
"They have shut down the government over an ideological crusade to deny affordable health care to millions of Americans."
It was the morning after on Capitol Hill, where late night brinkmanship sent America into its first government shutdown in 17 years when the money ran out at midnight.
Boehner, who effectively chose to side with the Tea Party faction of his party rather than risk his job by attempting to pass a straight funding resolution stripped of political poison pills, lit into the president.
"Washington Democrats have slammed the door on reopening the government by refusing to engage in bipartisan talks," he wrote in an opinion piece in USA Today.
The political paralysis remained unbroken as the Senate followed through on Majority Leader Harry Reid's promise, rejecting the House's demand that the two chambers appoint formal negotiators to thrash out a deal.
So far at least, Boehner is dancing on precarious political ground.
Perplexed tourists were turned away from monuments and museums on the National Mall secured behind barriers and tape reading "Police Line: Do not Cross".
But one hardy group was made of sterner stuff - an ageing band of the so-called Greatest Generation showed up at the World War II memorial and refused to be denied entry.
Those visiting their dead comrades in France, Belgium, Italy and elsewhere were turned away, as funding dried up for American cemeteries in 20 foreign fields.
Another symbol of hard-won freedoms - The Statue of Liberty in New York - was off limits to tourists.
The military and border patrol were kept at full strength, but the Pentagon was due to stand down almost half of its 800,000 civilian employees.
Obama warned that the shutdown could have disastrous consequences for America's sluggish economic recovery.
"We know that the last time Republicans shut down the government in 1996, it hurt our economy. And unlike 1996, our economy is still recovering from the worst recession in generations," the president said.
