I don't understand how the shutdown works. Does it make government not anything any more?
I will explain this stuff of a situation to you like you're 5.
From the scratch.
1. In the U.S. Congress, there are two parties called the House of Representatives and the Senate. They propose bills which become laws if the president signs on them.
(for more detail of this process, watch this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyeJ55o3El02. Currently, the House of Representatives are mostly Republicans, they don't like Obama. The Senate is mostly Democrats, they like Obama.
3. Obama has this nifty plan called Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (or Obamacare) which would provide nationwide medical insurance for the people. Some people don't want it, but most want to try it out and see how it goes.
4. The Republicans who fill the House of Representatives believe that Obamacare is one step closer towards Communism. They will not pass the new funding bill unless Obamacare is removed from it.
5. Does the Senate take the Republican House's demands? Nope, they are willing to stall it as long as they can to approve Obamacare.
6. Obama is facepalming as this childish situation continues. He is trying to not get angry because his PR specialist had specifically told Obama not to give himself the "angry black man" stereotype
7. So unless the funding bill is passed, all the government facilities that are deemed non-essential are shut down. This means that the police, fire station, and all those are still operating, so it's not like The Purge the movie.
If anything's unclear, just ask me again.
I tried to leave out my opinions as much as possible, but some of this might still be biased.