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WASHINGTON. — The US federal government’s shutdown that began on Tuesday morning sent more than 800 000 non-essential federal employees home nationwide and shuttered National Park facilities, including the Statue of Liberty.Federal lawmakers were unable to reach an agreement on how to keep the United States, that owes China upwards of US$3 trillion, properly financed by the midnight deadline, prompting most federal agencies to halt all non-essential functions, sending 800 000 workers home on furloughs, and requiring millions more to work without pay.

This development comes as a major embarrassment to the opposition MDC-T that based its election campaign on a mantra of “rich friends’’ at a time when Western nations were reeling from the effects of the global economic crisis.

The discerning Zimbabwean voter was, however, not taken in by Mr Morgan Tsvangirai’s “rich friends’’ mantra, giving Zanu-PF its biggest win since independence in 1980.

MDC-T’s “rich friends’’ mantra contrasted sharply with Zanu-PF’s indigenisation and economic empowerment thrust that seeks to fund expenditure by unlocking value in indigenised and idle assets and monetising those assets.

The Zanu-PF manifesto says value will be created from the 51 percent of assets that will be unlocked from the indigenisation programme.
At least US$7,3 billion worth of assets is projected from the indigenisation of 1 138 foreign companies in 12 key sectors of the economy.
In New York City, as many as  50 000 federal employees were affected, which could in turn mean a dip in business for shops that work near federal agencies and depend on those employees.

Travel will likely continue unabated as passport offices will open and air traffic controllers will continue to work, the radio station reported.
But those who want to visit the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and other National Park facilities in New York will find them closed.

In an address from the White House rose garden Tuesday afternoon, US president Barack Obama blamed Republican lawmakers for triggering the first government shutdown in nearly two decades.

Mr  Obama spoke on Tuesday roughly 12 hours after a longstanding budget stalemate on Capitol Hill caused a midnight shutdown impacting a number of government agencies and initiatives across the board.

“At midnight last night, for the first time in 17 years, the Republicans in Congress chose to shut down the federal government,” Mr Obama began his address.

“Let me be more specific: One faction of one party in one house of Congress in one branch of government shut down major parts of the government, all because they didn’t like one law,” the president said.

The shut-down erupted after the Republican-controlled House of Representatives failed to come to agreement with the Democrat-led Senate with regards to passing the federal budget. At the core of the issue was the GOP’s reluctance to accept President Obama’s Affordable Care Act, or “Obamacare,” which finally went into effect Tuesday morning amid the shut-down notwithstanding negative sentiment from the Republican Party.

“This Republican shutdown did not have to happen, but I want every American to understand why it did happen,” the president said Tuesday. “Republicans in the House of Representatives refused to fund the government unless we defunded or dismantled the Affordable Care Act.

They’ve shut down the government over an ideological crusade to deny affordable health insurance to millions of Americans.”
“In other words,” said Mr Obama, “they demanded ransom just for doing their job.”

In all, Congress’ failure to compromise on a budget is expected to end with 800,000 federal workers being sent home without pay and the shuttering of national parks and government programs aplenty.

“Veterans, who’ve sacrificed for their country, will find their support centers unstaffed,” President Obama said Monday afternoon before the midnight deadline came and went without a compromise. “Tourists will find every one of America’s national parks and monuments, from Yosemite to the Smithsonian to the Statue of Liberty, immediately closed.”

On Tuesday, President Obama said hundreds of thousands of civilian workers, many still on the job and many forced to go home, aren’t being paid “even if they have families to support and local business to rely on them.”

“We know that the longer this shutdown continues, the worse the effects will be more families will be hurt, more businesses will be harmed,” he said. “Once again, I urge House Republicans to reopen the government. Re-start the services that Americans depend on.”

When the midnight deadline hit early Tuesday, the presidential Twitter account announced, “They actually did it. A group of Republicans in the House just forced a government shutdown over Obamacare instead of passing a real budget.”

Hours later at the rose garden, the president warned, “We may not know the full impact of this Republican shutdown for some time. It will depend on how long it lasts.”

Notwithstanding the shutdown, though, the president announced that starting Tuesday morning, millions of uninsured Americans were provided the opportunity to purchase affordable health care through his hallmark legislation.

Speaking of the roughly 15 percent of uninsured Americans, the president said, “For them, and millions like them, this is a historic day.”
And while Republicans have largely opposed the president’s healthcare plan since before it was even approved in Congress, Mr Obama dismissed allegations from his opponents that have yet to prove accurate.

“Most Republicans have made a whole bunch of predictions about this law that haven’t come true. There are no death panels. Costs haven’t skyrocketed,” he said.

President Obama said that the US has actually experienced its slowest rate of health spending growth on record since his insurance plan was announced, and added that the demand for Obamacare was so significant that more than one million Americans visited newly launched websites for those programs early Tuesday.

“I know it’s strange that one party would make keeping people uninsured the centerpiece of their agenda,” Mr Obama said of House Republicans.

The last government shutdown occurred in 1996 amid the administration of then-President Bill Clinton