The United States officially enters a state of federal paralysis after Congress failed to pass a budget extension

The United States entered a state of federal paralysis early Wednesday morning after Congress failed to approve a partial budget extension, a move that will result in a shutdown of many federal departments and agencies and place their employees on forced leave.

This government shutdown, the first in nearly seven years, which marked the longest shutdown in the country’s history at 35 days, began after Republicans failed to extend government funding beyond Tuesday, the end of the US fiscal year.

Trump accused Democrats of causing the negotiations to stall and threatened to punish the party and its voters during the hiatus by targeting progressive priorities and forcing them to cut public sector jobs en masse.

“So we’re going to lay off a lot of people… They’re Democrats, they’re going to be Democrats,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.

He added that a lot of good things can come from lockdowns, suggesting that the pause could be used to get rid of a lot of things we didn’t want, and it would be democratic.