United States President Barack Obama on Saturday called on the lower chamber of Congress to “stop this farce” and end the US government shutdown by unconditionally approving a federal budget.
“Take that vote. Stop this farce. End this shutdown now,” Obama said in his weekly radio and video address.
The US government closed all but its essential operations earlier in the week when Republican lawmakers refused to approve money for government operations without first delaying or defunding the new health care law, commonly known as Obamacare.
The US Senate has already approved a budget, and “there are enough Republican and Democratic votes in the House of Representatives willing to do the same, and end this shutdown immediately”, Obama said.
“But the far right of the Republican Party won’t let Speaker John Boehner give that bill a yes-or-no vote.”
Obama said that he “won’t pay a ransom in exchange for reopening the government. And I certainly won’t pay a ransom in exchange for raising the debt ceiling”.
Obama is refusing to negotiate with Republicans over the budget issues until they pass a temporary bill to open the government and agree to raise the $16.7 trillion US statutory borrowing limit – without which Washington could default on its debts for the first time ever starting on October 17.
“For as reckless as a government shutdown is, an economic shutdown that comes with default would be dramatically worse,” Obama said.
Both the House and the Senate will convene rare Saturday sessions.
But some Republican pragmatists who have signaled they would vote to pass a fresh spending bill worried that such a resolution is no longer achievable.
“I think that ship has sailed,” Congressman Michael Grimm said on Friday.
“We’re getting too close to the debt ceiling vote. It looks like the only thing that’s going to work right now is a dialogue.”
Boehner on Friday appeared to be equally frustrated. “This isn’t some damn game,” he said after a news report cited an unnamed official saying that the White House is benefiting from the shutdown.
“All we’re asking for is to sit down and have a discussion, reopen the government and bring fairness to the American people under ‘Obamacare’,” Boehner said.
