The United States Government has begun partial shutdown, after congressional conservatives in the lower house refused to approve a spending plan for next year, unless it contained a repeal, defunding, or delay of President Obama signature health care legislation that went into effect as the government ran out of funding.

More than 700,000 US government workers face unpaid leave with no guarantee of back pay once the deadlock is over.   That includes the people who run national parks, approve passport applications, and fight America’s wars.

The Democratic Party-controlled Senate (upper house) approved a spending plan that kept the status quo.  The republican-led House of Representatives (lower house) is split into two caucuses:  A old school, pro-business group that would have joined Democrats in voting for the Senate plan, and a more radical, ultra-conservative “Tea Party” wing that is funded by a handful of billionaires and has been planning to shut the government for whatever reason for a while.