Obama urges Congress to reopen govt, avoid default

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama, in a visit to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on Monday to spotlight the loss of government services because of the shutdown, urged Congress to reopen government and raise the debt limit immediately.
“My very strong suspicion is there are enough votes there” to pass legislation, he said. “Hold a vote. Call a vote right now. Let’s see what happens.” FEMA had recalled employees who were idled in the shutdown to deal with Tropical Storm Karen but the storm has weakened and Obama said the agency would now send about 100 of them home.
The federal government shut down most of its operations and idled all but its most essential workers Oct. 1 after congressional Republicans continued to make defunding or delaying health care laws part of spending bills.
The country faces the possibility of a debt default if lawmakers do not raise the federal borrowing cap by Oct. 17.
Congressional Republicans have similarly insisted on White House concessions for doing so, and Obama has said he would not negotiate over raising the debt limit.
Obama said at FEMA that he would be happy to hold talks with congressional Republicans on health care or other issues, but not under the threat of shutdown or debt default.
A default would have “catastrophic impacts” on the US economy, a White House official told reporters.
Meanwhile, the shutdown entered its eighth day with no end in sight as another potential crisis — a possible US default — loomed, sending global stock markets downward.
Lawmakers appeared to be making little headway in raising the US debt ceiling, after the top Republican in Congress ruled out any measure to boost the nation’s borrowing authority without concessions from President Barack Obama.
The uncompromising talk rattled financial markets early Monday with the Dow dropping in early trading.
The US must increase its debt ceiling by Oct. 17 or face the possibility of defaulting on its debts, a move that would shake the global economy and financial markets.
Most analysts believe a deal between Republicans in Congress and the White House to avoid default would be reached in time, but investors remain nervous.
Just 10 days before the threat of a default would be imminent, animosity marked the stalemate with a statement from Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, accusing John Boehner, Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives, of a credibility problem and calling on him to allow a vote on a straightforward bill to re-open the government.
A defiant Boehner insisted Sunday that Obama must negotiate if the president wants to end the shutdown and avert a default that could trigger a financial crisis and recession that would echo 2008 or worse. The 2008 financial crisis plunged the US into the worst recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
Boehner also said he lacks the votes to pass a temporary spending bill that would keep the government operating.
The No. 2 House Democrat said Monday that fear among moderate Republicans about the party’s conservative tea party wing was extending the standoff.
Congressman Steny Hoyer said he believes 140 to 160 of the 232 House Republicans “think what’s being done right now is irrational.” Hoyer told MSNBC Monday these lawmakers are “looking over their shoulders” at potential primary challenges from tea party-backed candidates.
Hoyer said Republican friends have told him privately that they don’t understand the uncompromising position taken by the more conservative members of their caucus, lawmakers who have fallen into line with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and others.
Hoyer said the partial government shutdown now in effect is different from past closures “because this is a tactic. This is not a result of the inability to get an agreement.” Cruz, a force in pushing Republicans to link changes to Obama’s health care law in exchange for keeping the government running, spelled out his conditions for raising the borrowing authority.