Why the US Government Shut Down and Who Might Be the Most Affected

After Republicans and Democrats failed to reach an agreement on President Donald Trump's government spending bill, a government shutdown was implemented in the United States on Wednesday. This is the first federal shutdown in nearly seven years, and while not all US government services would be affected, some could be temporarily halted. While budget disputes are common in national politics, this one is tense because Trump has been drastically reducing the size of government over the past nine months. "We can do things that are irreversible, bad, and irreversible for them [the Democrats] during the shutdown, like laying off a lot of people or cutting programs they like," he said.