The U.S. government is on the brink of the first federal government shutdown in almost seven years, with prospects looking bleak for a last-minute compromise in Congress to avoid closures beginning at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday.

Democrats and Republicans are in a stalemate over health care funding and spending. Congress angrily blamed each other and refused to budge from their positions Tuesday as hundreds of thousands of federal workers stood to be furloughed or laid off .

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