[00:00.10]From VOA Learning English, this is In the News.
[00:08.00]This week, a political dispute in Washington led to a partial shutdown of the United States government for the first time in almost 20 years.
[00:19.78]Agencies sent home more than 800,000 workers --
[00:24.02]about one-third of the federal work force.
[00:27.34]The new budget year began Tuesday, October 1.
[00:31.90]But Republicans in Congress blocked even short-term spending for many government operations.
[00:39.05]They demanded that Democrats change the Affordable Care Act, the new health care law often called Obamacare.
[00:46.86]The Democrats refused.
[00:48.65]The shutdown did not stop Tuesday's launch of online marketplaces, called exchanges, at the center of the law.
[00:57.23]The federal government and states started websites for millions of uninsured Americans to buy health plans or pay a tax penalty.
[01:07.00]Opponents of Obamacare say it will force people and small businesses to buy insurance policies against their will.
[01:16.20]At the heart of the dispute is a clash between the two major political parties over the role of the central government in American life.
[01:25.83]The political fighting between Democrats and Republicans began to intensify during the 1990s.
[01:33.75]That followed the election of Democrat Bill Clinton as president.
[01:37.32]Differences over spending and the role of government led to two government shutdowns.
[01:44.85]The disputed presidential election of 2000 brought Republican George W. Bush to office.
[01:51.70]University of Virginia expert Larry Sabato says the political battles only deepened during his second term.
[02:00.42]"There is no question that the polarization increased first with the Bush presidency,
[02:05.64]because of the Iraq war and his handling of Hurricane Katrina.
[02:10.08]Then it accelerated once President Obama was elected."
[02:15.56]The divide grew wider when President Barack Obama pushed his health care reform law through Congress in 2010 without a single Republican vote.
[02:26.15]That in turn helped to fuel the rise of Tea Party groups around the country.
[02:32.06]The Tea Party is a conservative voting group within the Republican Party.
[02:38.18]Republicans have made several attempts to either defund the Affordable Care Act or delay it.
[02:43.86]The law is one of the most important acts of Barack Obama's presidency.
[02:49.70]Peter Brown of Quinnipiac University in Connecticut studies public opinion.
[02:55.44]"Republicans like smaller government and lower government spending and therefore are more opposed to Obamacare.
[03:02.89]Democrats tend to be more supportive in general of government solutions to problems,
[03:07.34]and they see Obamacare as the right thing to do to help on the health care issue."
[03:11.71]Currently, Republicans control the House of Representatives; Democrats hold the Senate and the White House.
[03:18.88]A group of conservative Republicans in the House have been leading the opposition to the health care law.
[03:26.03]Many of them now depend on strong support from Tea Party activists to get elected.
[03:32.34]Larry Sabato says many of them are willing, at least for now, to accept the political blame for forcing the government to shut down.
[03:41.52]"They will pay a bigger price, but they seem willing to pay it in part because most of their members are in completely safe [congressional] districts.
[03:51.42]The only thing they have to worry about is a challenge from the right in the Republican primary.
[03:57.59]So they do not want to let anybody get to their right."
[03:59.41]For the moment, Larry Sabato sees no quick end to the shutdown.
[04:03.88]Political observer Charlie Cook says some of the Republican opposition is also driven by deep feelings against President Obama.
[04:13.82]"There are a lot of Republicans where if President Obama said ‘up,' they would say ‘down.'
[04:18.24]The last politically driven government shutdown began in December of 1995.
[04:24.12]It lasted three weeks.
[04:26.12]And right now there is another issue.
[04:29.43]Congress will soon have to raise the borrowing limit or risk the United States not being able to make all of its loan payments.
[04:38.29]Congress must renew the government's power to borrow money by October 17 or risk a first-ever federal default.
[04:47.82]And that's In the News from VOA Learning English.
[04:52.04]I'm Avi Arditti.