Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation: Government Shutdown

government shutdown: The White House, in a statement late Thursday, blamed Republicans, saying the "completely avoidable" government shutdown was hurting the president's efforts to promote trade and U.S. influence in emerging world markets. Secretary of State John Kerry flew to Bali, Indonesia, on Friday and will head the U.S. delegation to the summits, according to CTV. Obama had been set to leave Saturday night for the Pacific island getaway of Bali for a meeting of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation. It originally was scheduled as one of four Asian stops, and the White House announced earlier in the week that the final legs of Malaysia and the Philippines were being cut because of staffing problems due to the shutdown. Obama had held out hope that a budget deal would allow the visit to Bali and Brunei, where more economic summits were planned, but decided the cancel the entire trip Thursday and WASHINGTON -- U.S. President Barack Obama is cancelling a trip to Asia to stay in Washington and push for an elusive funding bill to get the federal government back up and running after days of a shutdown, with no end in sight. Obama's decision to skip the summits in Indonesia and Brunei was an indication of how entrenched the stand-off appeared to be as it entered its fourth day. Funding for much of the government has been cut off since Tuesday, when a Republican effort to thwart President Barack Obama's new health care law stalled a normally routine spending bill that would have kept the government going. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.