🔗 Share this article

Shutdowns have become a recurring element of US politics – but this one feels especially difficult to resolve due to political dynamics and bad blood between the two parties.

Some government services face a temporary halt, and about 750,000 employees are expected to be put on unpaid leave since both political parties can't agree regarding budget legislation.

Legislative attempts to resolve the deadlock have repeatedly failed, and it is hard to see an off-ramp this time because each side – as well as the President – perceive advantages in maintaining their positions.

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

First, For Democrats, the focus is on Trump – not just healthcare

Democratic supporters have insisted for months for their representatives more forcefully fights the current presidency. Currently the party leadership has a chance to demonstrate their responsiveness.

Earlier this year, the Senate's top Democrat faced strong criticism after supporting GOP budget legislation and averting a shutdown in the spring. Now he's digging in.

This is a chance for the Democratic party to show their ability to reclaim some control from a presidency pursuing its agenda assertively on its agenda.

Refusing to back the GOP budget proposal comes with political risk that the wider public will grow frustrated with prolonged negotiations and consequences begin to mount.

Democratic representatives are using the budget standoff to highlight concerns about expiring health insurance subsidies together with GOP-backed federal health program reductions affecting low-income populations, which are both unpopular.

They are also trying to curtail executive utilization of his executive powers to cancel or delay funding authorized legislatively, a practice demonstrated in international assistance and other programmes.

2. For Republicans, it's an opportunity

The administration leader and one of his key officials have made little secret of the fact that they smell a chance to make more of the cutbacks to the federal workforce that have featured in the Republican's second presidency to date.

The President himself stated recently that the shutdown had afforded him a "unique chance", adding he intended to cut "opposition-supported departments".

Administration officials said it would be left with the "unenviable task" involving significant workforce reductions to keep essential government services operating if the shutdown continued. An administration spokesperson described this as "budgetary responsibility".

The extent of possible job cuts is still uncertain, but the White House has been in discussions with federal budget authorities, or OMB, under the leadership of the key official.

The budget director has previously declared the suspension of federal funding for regions governed by of the country, such as NYC and Chicago.

3. There's little trust on either side

Whereas past government closures typically involved late-night talks among political opponents aimed at restoring government services running again, currently there seems minimal cooperative willingness of collaboration this time.

Conversely, there is rancour. Political tensions persisted recently, as both sides blaming each other for causing the impasse.

The legislative leader from the majority party, accused Democrats of not being serious about negotiating, and maintaining positions during discussions "for electoral protection".

Meanwhile, the opposition's chief made similar charges against their counterparts, stating how a majority party commitment regarding health funding talks once the government reopens cannot be trusted.

The administration leader personally has escalated tensions through sharing a controversial AI-generated image of the Senate leader along with another senior opposition figure, in which the legislator is depicted with traditional headwear and a moustache.

The representative with party colleagues denounced this as discriminatory, which was denied by the Vice-President.

4. The US economy faces vulnerability

Experts project about 40% of government employees – more than 800,000 people – to face furlough due to the government closure.

This will reduce consumer expenditure – with broader economic consequences, including halted environmental approvals, delayed intellectual property processing, interrupted vendor payments and other kinds of federal operations connected to commercial interests comes to a halt.

A shutdown also injects fresh instability within economic systems currently experiencing disruption from multiple factors including trade measures, earlier cuts to government spending, enforcement actions and artificial intelligence.

Economic forecasters project that it could shave as much as 0.2 percentage points off US economic growth for each week it lasts.

But the economy typically recoups the majority of interrupted operations after a shutdown ends, similar to recovery patterns after major environmental events.

This might explain partially why the stock market have shown limited reaction by the current stand-off.

Conversely, analysts say that if administration officials implement his threat of mass firings, economic harm might become extended in duration.