Sorry we're Closed! part 2

Two days ago Nadeesha posted a great article on the shutdown of the US government, in his article he said “while I still fail to understand the political side to”, so this week I thought I would focus on another subject that I study, Politics, just to clear up the political side for those who don’t understand the current situation.As Nadeesha said, “the US government last night failed to reach an agreement over the budget”, the reason for this is because, unlike the UK where there are a number of Political parties, the US had just 2 popular parties which secure votes, which are the Democrats and the Republican parties. Both of the parties have very different view’s, the Democrats have a Social liberal view, so they are in favour of a welfare state as well as state intervention in the economy, which means they want benefits and are often compared to the Labour party in the UK. The Republican Party on the other hand have a conservative ideology, which means they are not in favour of welfare states and they believe in a Laissez faire or free market economy, they are often compared to the Conservative party in the UK.The UK has a National Health Service. It's funded by the government using money raised through taxes, which all working people above the age of 18 must pay, and means that people don't have to pay each time they use a doctor. Unlike the UK, the United States doesn't have an NHS. For everyone apart from the poorest, who get some support for medical treatment, visiting the doctor or hospital in America can be very expensive and the main way to bring down the cost is health insurance.President Obama and the Democrats want to introduce a new healthcare system into the United States, which they believe will make healthcare more affordable for most Americans .It's called the Affordable Care Act - nicknamed 'Obamacare' - and was made law in 2010, though much of it hasn't come into force yet. For the law to work, all Americans have to take out health insurance - in the past it's been optional .At the time 26 of the 50 US states challenged it in America's Supreme Court. They claimed that it was illegal to make everyone have health insurance. The court narrowly decided that the Act would stand, but the Republican Party continues to fight against the Affordable Care Act, saying it costs too much government money.They also don't believe that it's right for people to be forced to pay insurance. And because of this, the Republicans didn't want to sign the budget plan for the next year, as it included putting the Affordable Care Act into practise - which is something they don't want. Because the two sides couldn't agree before the midnight deadline yesterday America is now in shutdown mode ,meaning only limited services are operating.