Zee Media Bureau/Supriya Jha
Washington: In a bid to avoid the US government shutdown’s adverse impact on US Armed Forces, President Barack Obama has signed a bill to maintain pay & allowances for members of the American military.
Seeking to assure the military that they would not have to bear the brunt of the government shutdown, President Obama addressed the Armed Forces in a video message saying that troops in uniform will remain on duty and will be paid on time.
He added that the shutdown wills not affect the US military operations in Afghanistan and elsewhere but the civilians in US Defence Department might be furloughed.
US government began shutting down early Tuesday after the Congress failed to solve the budget impasse and the Senate rejected a spending bill to fund the government that sought to delay Obamacare law.
It is for the first time in last 17 years that the US government has to shut down in face of US Congress’ failure to reach an agreement on short term funding by a midnight deadline.
Heaping the blame on Republicans, Obama said in a tweet, “They actually did it. A group of Republicans in the House just forced a government shutdown over Obamacare instead of passing a real budget”.
But Obama assured that despite the shutdown, the new health insurance marketplace would open for business as planned on October 1.
Slamming Obama’s healthcare bill, Republicans have termed the bill as a “massive and unnecessary government intrusion into medicine that will cause premiums to skyrocket and damage the economy”.
The shutdown could see over a million federal employees being furloughed from their jobs.
