In a week the U.S. government may partially shut down. It current spending authority runs out at the end of the month. The House of Representatives and the Senate must agree on a continuing spending resolution to fund the government. It then has to be signed by the President.
So far the House, which moves first, approved a continuing spending resolution that provides the authority to spend money but defunds the health - care plan popularly known as Obamacare. The Senate will not agree to this; it will remove the defunding provision and send it back to the House. What happens afterwards is anyone's guess.
The government shutdown is not a terrible problem; it happened before (in 1995/96).
It is possible that it will be avoided as the action is very unpopular: in a recent poll 59% of Americans were against linking the funding bill to Obamacare, 19% is for.
But there is another looming problem. The U.S. cannot legally borrow more money because of a legislative limit on debt. In the middle of October it will run out of money and will not be able to fund its operations. One possibility is that it will default on debt. If this happens, the damage to the world economy will be enormous.
I will keep you informed.
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