美國政府三周內(nèi)第二次停擺

The US government shut down for the second time in three weeks, after a Republican senator blocked Congress from meeting a midnight deadline to fund federal agencies.

美國政府在三周時間內(nèi)二度停擺，此前一位共和黨參議員阻撓國會在周四午夜的截止期前通過一項聯(lián)邦開支案。

The shutdown was sparked by Rand Paul, a Republican senator from Kentucky, who wanted to express frustration that his party was pushing legislation that would boost the deficit despite having spent many years criticising Democrats for doing just that.

引起白宮停擺的是肯塔基州(Kentucky)的共和黨參議員蘭德•保羅(Rand Paul)(見題圖)，他希望抒發(fā)自己的失望之情，因為他所在的共和黨正在推動一項將會提高赤字的法案，而共和黨此前多年一直批評民主黨這樣做。

Donald Trump remained silent about the shutdown.

唐納德•特朗普(Donald Trump)對白宮的停擺保持沉默。

Congress had braced for another round of high-stakes brinkmanship on Thursday as lawmakers in both chambers prepared to vote on the two-year budget deal.

周四，國會已經(jīng)做好了迎接新一輪高風(fēng)險邊緣政策的準(zhǔn)備，參眾兩院的議員準(zhǔn)備就一項兩年的預(yù)算案投票。

The deal, which followed months of bitter wrangling, was intended to eliminate, for now, the periodic crises where the government closes or heads to the brink of shutdown.

這項經(jīng)過數(shù)月的激烈爭吵后出爐的法案旨在消除政府目前面臨的一項周期性危機——停擺或者處于停擺邊緣。

The Senate had been expected to back the budget and send it to the House for a vote before midnight. Most experts had expected that the bill would pass the Senate but face more trouble in the House. But Mr Rand complicated the situation in the Senate, and made it impossible for the GOP leadership to bring the bill up for a vote.

原本預(yù)計參議院將支持這項預(yù)算案，并將其轉(zhuǎn)至眾議院，以便在午夜前對其投票。大多數(shù)專家此前預(yù)計，這一法案將在參議院獲通過，但將在眾議院面臨更多麻煩。然而，保羅使參議院的局勢復(fù)雜化，導(dǎo)致共和黨領(lǐng)導(dǎo)層無法在參議院提出這項法案以進(jìn)行投票。

During a lengthy speech in the Senate that was designed to delay the vote, Mr Paul listed spending programmes that he said were examples of how the federal government was wasting money.

為了推遲參議院對這項法案的投票，保羅發(fā)表了一篇長篇演講，列舉出多項開支，據(jù)他所說，這些都是聯(lián)邦政府浪費金錢的例子。

He accused his fellow Republicans of hypocrisy. “When both parties are happy, they’re usually looting the Treasury,” said Mr Paul. “And that’s what this bill does.”

他指責(zé)其他共和黨人很虛偽。“當(dāng)兩黨都很高興的時候，他們通常是在搶劫財政部(Treasury)。”保羅說，“而這就是這項法案要做的事情。”

While the first shutdown was largely blamed on the Democrats, who tried to couple the budget measure to a separate immigration issue, blame for the latest shutdown will be blamed on Mr Paul and his party, which controls both houses of Congress.

今年以來的第一次白宮停擺主要歸咎于民主黨人，他們試圖把預(yù)算案與另一項移民問題結(jié)合起來，而最新的這次停擺將歸咎于保羅及其所在的共和黨，目前控制參眾兩院的正是共和黨。