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US president says "ideological crusade" being carried out against healthcare law, as many government services shut down. |
Obama was speaking at the White House on Tuesday, the first day of the partial government shutdown of non-essential services, triggered by the failure of Congress to pass a budget law.
The president said Republicans, who have refused to pass the funding bill unless reforms are made to his landmark healthcare law, should not be able to hold the entire economy "hostage".
He urged them to reopen the government quickly and allow furloughed federal employees to go back to work.
The government shut down because Congress did not pass a funding bill ahead of Monday's midnight deadline for the end of the 2013 fiscal year.
The partial shutdown, the first such event in 17 years, meant that 800,000 "non-essential" workers were forced to remain home on Tuesday.
The Republican-controlled House has passed two spending bills in recent days, both of which have been rejected by the Democrat-led Senate. House Republicans asked for a conference on the budget with the Senate, but the upper house of Congress killed that proposal when it met on Tuesday morning.
Senate majority leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, said that he would not negotiate as long as the House linked the budget law to the healthcare law.
Tuesday's Senate vote was the fourth time since this political battle began that the body had rejected a House Republican bill or proposal.
Shutdown effects
Some critical parts of the government, including the military and air traffic control, will remain open. The shutdown will, however, keep hundreds of thousands of federal workers at home and unpaid.
It could affect government services including park management, food assistance for children and pregnant women and federal home loan programmes. Federal agencies, such as NASA, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and others, were also affected.
In an earlier statement, Obama spoke bluntly about House Republicans: "You don't get to extract a ransom for doing your job, for doing what you're supposed to be doing anyway, or just because there's a law there that you don't like."
Speaking of the healthcare law that undergoes a major expansion on Tuesday, he said: "That funding is already in place. You can't shut it down."
Signs of dissent
The Republican speaker of the House, John Boehner, responded a few hours later on the House floor. "The American people don't want a shutdown and neither do I," he said. However, he added, the new healthcare law was having "a devastating impact ... something has to be done".
House Republicans have sought a year's delay in a requirement in the healthcare law for individuals to buy coverage.
However, in recent days several Republican senators and House members have said they would be willing to vote for straightforward legislation with no healthcare-related provisions.
The last shutdown, in the winter of 1995-96, severely damaged Republican election prospects.
Stock markets around the world reacted resiliently to the shutdown on Tuesday morning, with analysts saying significant damage to the US economy was unlikely unless the shutdown lasted more than a few days.
After falling the day before the US shutdown deadline, European stocks mostly recovered. In Asia, stocks were mixed, while Wall Street was expected to open slightly higher.
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