The Republicans are using the federal budget to try and defund The Affordable Healthcare Act, also known as Obamacare.
The government shutdown last happened when Bill Clinton was President. This means that all government procurement and day to day activities are currently on hold.
Which is probably terrible for the US economy which has also been doing well recently.
So far the public seem to be behind President Obama and is approval has gone up by 4%.
However this can change very quickly and especially if this shutdown starts to inconvenience the public. Then the public support of President Obama's could disappear very quickly.
