美国政府三周内第二次停摆
美国政府在三周时间内二度停摆，此前一位共和党参议员阻挠国会在周四午夜的截止期前通过一项联邦开支案。
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.
引起白宫停摆的是肯塔基州(Kentucky)的共和党参议员兰德•保罗(Rand Paul)(见题图)，他希望抒发自己的失望之情，因为他所在的共和党正在推动一项将会提高赤字的法案，而共和党此前多年一直批评民主党这样做。
Donald Trump remained silent about the shutdown.
唐纳德•特朗普(Donald Trump)对白宫的停摆保持沉默。
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，国会已经做好了迎接新一轮高风险边缘政策的准备，参众两院的议员准备就一项两年的预算案投票。
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.
这项经过数月的激烈争吵后出炉的法案旨在消除政府目前面临的一项周期性危机——停摆或者处于停摆边缘。
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.
原本预计参议院将支持这项预算案，并将其转至众议院，以便在午夜前对其投票。大多数专家此前预计，这一法案将在参议院获通过，但将在众议院面临更多麻烦。然而，保罗使参议院的局势复杂化，导致共和党领导层无法在参议院提出这项法案以进行投票。
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.
为了推迟参议院对这项法案的投票，保罗发表了一篇长篇演讲，列举出多项开支，据他所说，这些都是联邦政府浪费金钱的例子。
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.”
他指责其他共和党人很虚伪。“当两党都很高兴的时候，他们通常是在抢劫财政部(Treasury)。”保罗说，“而这就是这项法案要做的事情。”
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.
今年以来的第一次白宫停摆主要归咎于民主党人，他们试图把预算案与另一项移民问题结合起来，而最新的这次停摆将归咎于保罗及其所在的共和党，目前控制参众两院的正是共和党。
