🔗 Share this article

Shutdowns are a repeat feature in American political life – but this one feels especially difficult to resolve due to political dynamics and bad blood among both major parties.

Some government services face a temporary halt, and about 750,000 people likely to be placed on unpaid leave as both political parties remain unable to reach consensus on a spending bill.

Legislative attempts to resolve the impasse continue to fall short, and it is hard to see a clear resolution path this time as each side – including the nation's leader – perceive advantages in maintaining their positions.

Here are the four ways that make things feel different currently.

1. For Democrats, it's about Trump – beyond healthcare issues

Democratic supporters has been demanding for months that their party more forcefully fights the Trump administration. Currently the party leadership have an opportunity to demonstrate their responsiveness.

In March, the Senate's top Democrat was fiercely criticised after supporting a Republican spending bill thus preventing a government closure early this year. Now he's holding firm.

This is a chance for Democrats to show they can take back some control from a presidency pursuing its agenda assertively with determined action.

Opposing the GOP budget proposal carries electoral dangers as citizens generally may become impatient with prolonged negotiations and consequences begin to mount.

The Democrats are leveraging the budget standoff to put a spotlight on ending healthcare financial support and GOP-backed federal health program reductions affecting low-income populations, which are both unpopular.

Additionally, they're attempting to restrict the President's use of his executive powers to cancel or delay funding authorized legislatively, which he has done in international assistance and other programmes.

Second, For Republicans, it's an opportunity

The President along with a senior aide have made little secret of the fact that they smell a chance to make more of reductions in government employment that have featured the current presidential term to date.

The President himself stated recently that the shutdown had afforded him a "unique chance", adding he intended to cut "Democrat agencies".

Administration officials stated they would face a "challenging responsibility" of mass lay-offs to keep essential government services operating if the shutdown continued. An administration spokesperson described this as "budgetary responsibility".

The scope of the potential lay-offs is still uncertain, though administration officials have been consulting with the Office of Management and Budget, the budgeting office, under the leadership of the key official.

The budget director has previously declared the suspension of federal funding for Democratic-run parts the opposition party, such as NYC and Chicago.

3. There's little trust on either side

Whereas past government closures have been characterised by late-night talks between the two parties in an effort to get government services running again, currently there seems little of the same spirit for compromise presently.

Conversely, animosity prevails. The bad blood continued over the weekend, as both sides exchanging accusations regarding the deadlock's origin.

House Speaker from the majority party, accused Democrats with insufficient commitment about negotiating, and maintaining positions during discussions "for electoral protection".

Simultaneously, the Senate leader made similar charges at the other side, stating how a Republican promise to discuss healthcare subsidies once the government reopens can not be taken seriously.

The administration leader personally has escalated tensions through sharing a controversial AI-generated image featuring the opposition leader and the top Democrat in the House, in which the legislator appears wearing traditional headwear and a moustache.

The affected legislator with party colleagues denounced this as discriminatory, a characterization rejected by the Vice-President.

4. The US economy is fragile

Experts project about 40% of government employees – over 800,000 workers – to face furlough as a result of the government closure.

This will reduce consumer expenditure – with broader economic consequences, as environmental permitting, patent approvals, payments to contractors and other kinds of government activity connected to commercial interests comes to a halt.

The closure additionally introduces fresh instability into an economy currently experiencing disruption from multiple factors including trade measures, previous budget reductions, enforcement actions and technological advancements.

Analysts estimate potential reduction of as much as 0.2 percentage points from national economic expansion for each week it lasts.

However, economic activity generally rebounds most of that lost activity after a shutdown ends, similar to recovery patterns after major environmental events.

That could be one reason why the stock market has appeared largely unfazed by the current stand-off.

On the other hand, analysts say should administration officials implement his threat of mass firings, the damage could be more long-lasting.