Washington is a lot quieter as it wakes up this morning.
For the first time in 17 years, the House of Representatives and the Senate haven't been able to agree on a domestic Budget - meaning that today, as the US begins its new financial year, there's no law allowing it to spend any money.
President Barack Obama:
As a result, 800,000 workers have been temporarily laid off without pay, and all non-essential services from the federal government - like parks and tourist landmarks, and educational services - have been shut down.
These people on the streets of Washington aren't impressed.
The dispute marks the latest war between Democrats and Republicans about President Obama's landmark healthcare reforms - which were due to kick in today.
Having failed to repeal the laws behind the so-called ObamaCare system, or to get it struck down by the Supreme Court, the Republicans controlling the House of Representatives now want to render the system redundant by offering it zero funding.
The Democrats in the Senate refuse to sign up to any such deal - and so any Budget passed by one house is being rejected by the other.
The speaker of the House, Republican leader John Boehner, says there's only one option left.
Whether any such conference can work remains to be seen. Even if the Obamacare hurdle is overcome, there'll still be the usual debates over how the US government spends its money - and the legal limit for the natoinal debt is also fast approaching.
In the meantime, hundreds of thousands of people are out of a job - including at NASA, where only a skeleton staff is at work today.
Even NASA's Voyager 2 space probe tweeted last night, before its account was abandoned in the cutbacks:
"Farewell, humans. Sort it out yourselves."
