Angry locked-out government workers rallied outside the US Capitol building yesterday to tell Republican rightwingers to stop holding the country hostage.

Two million public-sector staff are not being paid as a result of Republican House of Representatives speaker John Boehner's refusal to allow a budget vote after spending authorisation ran out on October 1.

Of those, 800,000 have been told not to bother turning up for work, closing down national parks and monuments - including even war cemeteries in Europe.

The lockout, officially known as a furlough, is also hitting inspections by the labour and environment departments alongside other regulatory agencies and investigations into tax dodging.

Speaker after speaker lined up outside the Capitol to demand an end to the shutdown and demand a continuing resolution (CR) to allow spending to be kept at previous levels while negotiations continue, but Mr Boehner has remained firm in opposing the plan.

Between rousing chants of "we want to work" and "let them vote," trade unionists and members of the Democrats' progressive caucus reminded Mr Boehner and Tea Party Republicans of the hard work that public servants do.

"America needs real action not political games," said union federation AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka.

"No veterans should come to Washington DC and find their memorials closed, he added."

Event compere Representative Keith Ellison told the crowd: "Rent won't be furloughed, the cost of groceries won't be furloughed and bills won't be furloughed."

Democrat whip Steny Hoyer said: "We need to open the government of the people, for the people, by the people," demanding: "Let us vote on a clean CR."

But there was no end in sight for the Republican standoff with President Barack Obama - who was forced to cancel a weekend trip to an Asian economic summit to deal with the shutdown.

The extreme right of the Republican party has blocked the budget over so-called Obamacare, a relatively unambitious bid to guarantee health insurance, rather than healthcare, for all US citizens.

Democrats complained yesterday that the Republicans were so divided among themselves that it was impossible to debate with them.