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The clock continues to tick in the run-up to Friday's midnight deadline for U.S. lawmakers to find a solution to a budget stalemate that threatens to shutter the federal government.
If no solution is found, 800,000 non-essential federal workers will be asked to stay home until an agreement can be hammered out, and the question is how long would it last?
The fight over the budget comes at a time of ballooning U.S. debt and friction between Democrats and Republicans over how to reduce it.
John Fortier, fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, said a shutdown is unlikely to last.
"Having lots of government workers furloughed and angry will ultimately prove too politically difficult to sustain very long," he said.
A shutdown, if it occurs, would start over the weekend, when there would be very little visible effect, and it could be resolved by some sort of deal.
A shorter shutdown could happen without real hardship, but if it went on for longer than a week, the pressure to resolve it would be enormous, he said.
Darrell M. West, vice president and director of governance studies at the Brookings Institution, said the shutdown could last a few weeks as the two parties contest their competing political philosophies.
"The $64,000 question is who gets blamed. Right now, Obama has the upper hand," he said.
Meanwhile, each side will seek to place responsibility for the shutdown on the other side and ultimately the public will decide who is responsible.
Congress as a whole, however, could be taking a political risk if Washington does close down, as Americans could blame both parties in nearly equal terms. A Gallup poll released Wednesday found that Americans favor a compromise over the budget. By 58 percent to 33 percent, more Americans want government leaders to back a compromise and avert a shutdown rather than hold out for a budget they agree with, according to Gallup.
The Pew Research Center said in a study released on Monday that the public remains divided over who to blame if the government closes shop.
Thirty-nine percent said they would fault Republicans if the two sides cannot agree, whereas 36 percent would blame the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama. Sixteen percent would fault both sides.
Steven Kull, director of the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland, said there are some elements of the GOP that view a shutdown as giving them an advantage with their base, but at the same time a government closure could put elements of the Republican party in an awkward position.
There is a greater probability that the GOP would take more of the blame, although the polls remain unclear. Moreover, Americans are concerned about the U.S. deficit and GOP lawmakers could portray themselves as being fiscally responsible, which would play to Republicans' advantage, he said.
Meanwhile, U.S. President Barack Obama is in meetings on Friday with Republicans in a bid to hammer out a deal and avoid a federal shutdown.
XINHUA
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