The Great Shell Game Begins: The U.S. Gov’t is Out of Business…For Now

President Barack Obama holds a conference call with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, in the Oval Office, Labor Day, Sept. 6, 2010. Staff attending include: House Liaison Dan Turton, Senate Liaison Shawn Maher, Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs Phil Schiliro, and Deputy Assistant to the President for Economic Policy Jason Furman. 

Washington (CNN) — For the first time in 17 years, the U.S. government shut down at 12:01 a.m. ET Tuesday after the House and the Senate couldn’t agree on a spending bill to fund the government.

The two sides bickered and blamed each other for more than a week over Obamacare, the president’s signature health care law. House Republicans insisted the spending bill include anti-Obamacare amendments. Senate Democrats were just as insistent that it didn’t.

About an hour after the shutdown started, House members voted to reaffirm the Obamacare amendments they previously passed, while also requesting a conference with the Senate to work out their differences.

But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid already said he would not agree to such a meeting until the House presents a clean spending bill.

“We will not go to conference with a gun to our head,” Reid said late Monday night.

“Tomorrow will be a bad day for government.”