Republicans and Democrats fail to narrow differences on spending bill, as effects of shutdown start showing.United States lawmakers have failed to make progress on ending the partial shutdown of the federal government, with Republicans and Democrats blocking rival stopgap spending bills for a second straight day.The US Senate on Wednesday voted down the duelling proposals by margins that mirrored similar efforts the previous day and that had also failed to avert the shutdown.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of listSenators rejected the Republican proposal to extend government funding until November 21 in a 55-45 vote.Two Democrats, John Fetterman of Pennsylvania and Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, and one independent, Angus King of Maine, crossed the aisle to support the bill as they had on Tuesday.The Democrats’ bill, which ties an extension of government funding to about $1.5 trillion in new healthcare spending, failed with 53 votes in favour and 47 against, with all Republicans again opposed.The impasse came as US President Donald Trump made good on his promise to start inflicting costs on Democrats over the shutdown, which has brought some government services to a halt and forced essential employees to report to work without pay on the promise of being compensated later.Russell T Vought, the White House budget director, said the administration would freeze $26bn in infrastructure …
