🔗 Share this article

Government closures have become a recurring feature in American political life – but the current situation appears particularly intractable because of shifting political forces along with bad blood among the two parties.

Certain federal operations are temporarily suspended, and about 750,000 people likely to be placed on unpaid leave as both political parties can't agree on a spending bill.

Legislative attempts to resolve the deadlock have repeatedly failed, and it is hard to see a clear resolution path this time because each side – as well as the President – can see some merit in digging in.

These are the four ways that make this shutdown distinct currently.

First, For Democrats, the focus is on Trump – beyond healthcare issues

The Democratic base have insisted over recent periods that their party adopt stronger opposition against the Trump administration. Well now the party leadership have an opportunity to demonstrate they have listened.

In March, Senate leader faced strong criticism for helping pass a Republican spending bill and averting a government closure early this year. This time he's holding firm.

This is a chance for the Democratic party to demonstrate their ability to reclaim certain authority from an administration pursuing its agenda assertively with determined action.

Opposing the GOP budget proposal carries electoral dangers as citizens generally will grow frustrated with prolonged negotiations and impacts accumulate.

Democratic representatives are leveraging the shutdown fight to put a spotlight on expiring health insurance subsidies and GOP-backed government healthcare cuts for the poor, which are both unpopular.

They are also trying to curtail executive utilization of presidential authority to cancel or delay funding approved by Congress, a practice demonstrated in international assistance and various federal programs.

2. For Republicans, they see potential

The President and one of his key officials have openly indicated their perspective that they perceive an opening to advance further reductions to the federal workforce that have featured in the Republican's second presidency to date.

The President himself stated recently that the government closure had afforded him an "unprecedented opportunity", and that he would look to reduce funding for "Democrat agencies".

Administration officials said it would be left with a "challenging responsibility" of mass lay-offs to keep essential government services operating if the shutdown continued. The Press Secretary described this as "budgetary responsibility".

The scope of the potential lay-offs remains unclear, though administration officials have been consulting with federal budget authorities, the budgeting office, under the leadership of the key official.

The budget director has already announced the halting of government financial support for Democratic-run parts of the country, including New York City and Chicago.

3. There's little trust between both parties

Whereas past government closures typically involved extended negotiations between the two parties aimed at restoring federal operations, there appears to be minimal cooperative willingness of collaboration this time.

Conversely, animosity prevails. The bad blood persisted recently, with Republicans and Democrats exchanging accusations for causing the impasse.

House Speaker from the majority party, charged opposition members of not being serious toward resolution, and holding out during discussions "to get political cover".

Meanwhile, the opposition's chief levelled the same accusation against their counterparts, saying that a majority party commitment to discuss healthcare subsidies once the government reopens cannot be trusted.

The administration leader personally has escalated tensions by posting a computer-created controversial depiction of the Senate leader and the top Democrat opposition figure, in which the legislator is depicted with a large Mexican-style sombrero and a moustache.

The representative with party colleagues called this racist, a characterization rejected by the administration's second-in-command.

Fourth, The American Economy is fragile

Analysts expect about 40% of government employees – more than 800,000 people – to face furlough due to the shutdown.

This will reduce consumer expenditure – and also have wider ramifications, including halted environmental approvals, delayed intellectual property processing, payments to contractors and other kinds of federal operations connected to commercial interests cease functioning.

The closure additionally introduces new uncertainty within economic systems currently experiencing disruption from multiple factors including trade measures, previous budget reductions, enforcement actions and artificial intelligence.

Economic forecasters project potential reduction of as much as 0.2 percentage points from national economic expansion weekly during the closure.

However, economic activity generally rebounds the majority of interrupted operations after a shutdown ends, similar to recovery patterns caused by a natural disaster.

This might explain partially why financial markets has appeared largely unfazed to the ongoing impasse.

On the other hand, experts indicate should administration officials implement proposed significant workforce reductions, the damage could be more long-lasting.