US Government shuts down after Senate politicians fail to agree on budget

The US government began a shutdown after Senate politicians were unable to agree on a new budget.

A few Republicans joined Democrats to block a short-term funding measure being pushed by Donald Trump and Republican leaders in Congress.

Five Democrats and five Republicans switched sides, meaning the Senate was 10 votes short of supporting the measure at midnight on Friday.

Social Security and most other safety net programmes are unaffected by the pause in federal spending authority.

Critical government functions will continue, with uniformed service members, health inspectors and law enforcement officers set to work without pay.

But the shutdown, which came on the day of Mr Trump’s one year anniversary as president, could see 750,000 federal employees not return to work on Monday unless a funding deal is reached.

Predictably, both parties moved swiftly to blame one another. Democrats laid fault with Republicans, who control both chambers of Congress and the White House and have struggled with building internal consensus.

Republicans declared Democrats responsible, after they declined to provide the votes needed to overcome a filibuster over their desire to force the passage of legislation to protect some 700,000 younger immigrants from deportation.

They branded the confrontation a "Schumer shutdown" and argued that Democrats were harming fellow Americans to protect "illegal immigrants." Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said a "Trump shutdown" was more accurate.

Earlier on Friday, Mr Trump had brought Mr Schumer to the White House in hopes of cutting a deal on a short-term spending agreement.

The two New Yorkers, who pride themselves on their negotiating abilities were unable to come to an agreement that would keep the government open.

Budget Director Mick Mulvaney told CNN that "Not much has changed" over the course of the day, but he predicted a deal would be reached by Monday, when most government offices are to reopen after the weekend.