US government shuts down!

The US government has started to shut down for the first time in 17 years after President Barack Obama refused to bow to Republican demands that he roll back his signature healthcare law.

Around 700,000 federal workers were to be placed on indefinite unpaid leave after a game of intense political brinkmanship failed to yield any deal between Democrats and Republicans in Congress.

In a series of late-night votes Republicans insisted they would only vote to fund the federal government in return for a one-year delay to the health reform law known as Obamacare, key parts of which go into force today.

Mr Obama held firm to his own position, accusing Republican leaders of shutting down the government to "save face after making some impossible promises to the extreme right wing of their party".

"You don’t get to extract a ransom for doing your job; for doing what you’re supposed to be doing anyway; or just because there’s a law there that you don’t like," Mr Obama said.

The result was a political stalemate and at 11.59pm the deadline passed to avert the first shutdown of the federal government since Bill Clinton faced down Congressional Republicans in early 1996.

While most of the US government will continue to function around 700,000 "non-essential" public workers - around a third of the federal work force - will be ordered to remain at home. NASA will be almost entirely closed, pay cheques will be delayed and passport applications will go unprocessed.

Minutes before the deadline the White House's Office of Budget and Management officially ordered government agencies to "execute plans for an orderly shutdown due to the absence of appropriations".

At midnight, as government websites and Twitter feeds began to close, Mr Obama released a pre-taped message to America's soldiers, telling them "Congress has not fulfilled its responsibility" to fund the government.

The federal government is the single largest employer in the United States and an extended closure could wreak serious economic damage on an American economy that remains fragile five years after the 2008 financial crisis.