With the federal government closed for business for the first time in nearly two decades, President Obama
on Tuesday laid the blame squarely on the GOP, calling it “a Republican shutdown” caused by their spite over Obamacare.
on Tuesday laid the blame squarely on the GOP, calling it “a Republican shutdown” caused by their spite over Obamacare.“They’ve shut down the government over an ideological crusade to deny affordable health insurance to millions of Americans,” Mr. Obama said in the Rose Garden at the White House. “In other words, they demanded ransom just for doing their job.”
over an ideological crusade to deny affordable health insurance to millions of Americans,” Mr. Obama said in the Rose Garden at the White House. “In other words, they demanded ransom just for doing their job.”The president said the shutdown could have been avoided if tea-party Republicans had listened to “reason.”
“This Republican shutdown did not have to happen, but I want every American to understand why it did happen: Republicans in the House of Representatives refused to fund the government unless we defunded or dismantled the Affordable Care Act,” he said. “This, more than anything else, seems to be what the Republican Party stands for these days. A lot of the Republicans in the House ran for office two years ago promising to shut down the government, and so apparently they’ve now gotten their wish.”
the government unless we defunded or dismantled the Affordable Care Act,” he said. “This, more than anything else, seems to be what the Republican Party stands for these days. A lot of the Republicans in the House ran for office two years ago promising to shut down the government, and so apparently they’ve now gotten their wish.”For the second time in as many days, a stern Mr. Obama blasted the GOP and urged the party’s leaders to back down from their determination to repeal, defund or delay Obamacare, the president’s signature domestic achievement.
Key parts of the law went into effect Tuesday, and Mr. Obama again promoted his new entitlement program, even reading out the toll-free number — 1-800-318-2596 — and urging people to sign up.
The president acknowledged more problems Tuesday with the Obamacare web site, healthcare.gov, saying “the site’s been running more slowly than it normally will.”
“The reason is because more than one million people visited healthcare.gov before 7 in the morning,” he said. “That gives you a sense of how important this is to millions of Americans around the country, and that’s a good thing.”
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