US government partial shutdown continues

(Vatican Radio) There are no signs that a partial government shutdown in the United States will end any time soon. A funding cutoff for much of the government began Tuesday as a Republican effort to kill or delay the nation's Obamacare health law prevented the passing of a routine spending bill.

“There has been a big push within the Republican Party to delay or defund President Obama’s signature piece of legislation which is the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare,” explained Kishore Jayabalan, The Director of the Rome office of the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty.

“There has been quite a bit of support in the public to do so, but whether this is the right time and this is the right way to achieve that Republican objective is what is being fought out within the Republican Party,” Jayabalan told Vatican Radio. “On the other hand, you have President Obama and the Democrats who are trying to say the law has been passed regarding Obamacare, and that there can’t be any changes to it, even though the President himself has delayed the mandate for employers to provide health care insurance to their employees.”

Hundreds of thousands of federal employees deemed “nonessential” have been told to stay home, and national parks and museums have closed for the time being, but Jayablan does not think anyone needs to worry just yet.

“I had just finished a short three-year term of employment for the US federal government the last time this happened in 1995, and I can ensure you that there is quite a bit of grandstanding and public relations going on,” he said.

Listen to the full interview by Charles Collins with Kishore Jayabalan: