PJ: A common theme in international coverage of the US today centers on the budget crisis and possible government shutdown. It does not bode well for the US Congress in that by not coming to an agreement, about 800,000 people (not including Congressional members) will not receive their paychecks in the event of a forced government shutdown.
The Straits Times
Crunchtime for Obama as government shutdown looms
WASHINGTON - THE clock was ticking on Friday for Republicans and Democrats to come up with a deal to avert a government shutdown at midnight after President Barack Obama failed to resolve the impasse.
With Mr Obama's order ringing in their ears, negotiators from both sides worked through a second straight night in search of a spending plan to fund the federal government for the rest of the fiscal year that ends on Sep 30 - to be approved by the Senate and the House of Representatives.
Mr Obama's second consecutive late-night summit with Republican House Speaker John Boehner and Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid failed to clinch a deal in a budget row that has turned into a tussle for political primacy in divided Washington.
The president showed a glint of optimism that negotiations could be wrapped up on Friday, allowing him to put the machinery already beginning to shutter the vast federal bureaucracy into reverse.
'My hope is that I will be able to announce to the American people sometime relatively early in the day that a shutdown has been averted, that a deal has been completed,' Mr Obama said.
But the president cautioned he was not yet 'wildly optimistic.' Should last-ditch efforts fail, around 800,000 federal employees would be temporarily laid off, frontline combat soldiers would miss paychecks and even the Blackberry smartphones of government officials would go dark. -- AFP
http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/World/Story/STIStory_654470.html
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