Video: US Government Shutdown: There's a silver lining to the stalemate The shutdown, which has seen non essential federal services such as parks and museums close, came about due to Democrats and Republicans failing to agree on signing the Continuing Resolution of the federal budget. Tim Stanley says this shows "the government is actually working ... the President is not really supposed to control the finances of the nation that's supposed to be the houses job." Hundreds of thousands of government workers are being kept at home on no pay however Stanley says it's a situation the country has seen before. There have been 17 [shutdowns] in the past, they were actually quite a regular occurence in the 80s and 90s and the last big one that America had lasted 28 days and the end result was that unemployment fell and America got wellfare reform. The current shutdown shows no signs of ending any time soon, with both Republicans and Democrats warning that it could last for several weeks.