>> but that audition means the halls of where you are now are inundated with lobbyists, correct? >> it's not just lobbyists -- two minutes i'm given until we see the president here. it's people who really believe in a cause but are very inflexible. and they are pouring millions of dollars to challenge these. and the filibuster, a 60-vote margin every envisioned by the founders of the constitution, ironically it was put in place to speed things up, and it has been used many, many times to slow things down over the last ten years or so, so that brings us to the verge of a government shutdown, a potential default own the national debt, and

potential economic ruin, and i'm not overstating that case, because we saw what happened last time. so there aresy intsh -- it is a asy stimic problem. >> it would be a big deal if you are counting on your check and you are about to be furloughed. mike, that's a big deal. >> yeah, there are worker who will not be happy about it. but most experts say you are right, a shutdown fails in comparison to the debt ceiling, which expires soon -- >> here is the president >> and mike the president is in

the briefing room. let's listen in. >> two should be fairly simple. pass the budget and pay america's bills. but if the united states congress does not fulfill its responsibility to pass a budget today, much of the united states government will be forced to shut down tomorrow. i want to be very clear about what that shut down would mean. with regard to operations that will continue, if you are on social security, you will keep receiving your checks. if you are on medicare, your doctor will see you. everyone's mail will still be delivered. and government operations related to national security or public safety will go on. our troops will continue to serve with skill, honor and courage. air traffic controllers, prison guards, those who are with

border control -- border patrol will remain on their posts, but their paychecks will be delayed until the government reopens. nasa will shut down almost entirely. but mission control will remain open to support the astronauts. i also want to be very clear about what will change. office billings will close. checks will be delayed. vital services that our economy depends on will be hamstrung. business owners would see delays in raising capitol, or rebuilding after hurricane sandy. veterans who have sacrificed for their country will find their support centers unstaffed. tourists will find every one of the national parks and monuments

immediately closed. and the communities and small businesses that rely on these national treasures will be out of customers and out of luck. and in keeping with the brood ramifications of a shutdown, i think it's important that everybody understand the federal government is america's largest employer. more than 2 million civil workers and 1.3 million active duty military serve in all 50 states and all around the world. hundreds of thousands of these dedicated public surcan'ts who stay on the job will do so with pay, and several hundred thousand more will be furloughed without pay. of course what will not be furloughed are the bills they have to pay. these americans are our neighbors, their kid goes to our

schools, they worship where we do. they serve their country with pride, they are the customers of every business in this country, and they would be hurt greatly and as a consequence all of us will be hurt greatly should congress choose to shut the people's government down. so a shutdown will have a very real economic impact on real people. right away. past shutdowns have disrupted the economy significantly. these will too. five years ago right now our economy was in meltdown, today our businesses have created 7.5 million new jobs, the housing market is healing, and our deficits are falling fast.

theed in of putting the american's people hard-earned progress at risk is the height of irresponsibility, and it doesn't have to happen. let me repeat this. it does not have to happen. all of this entirely preventable if the house chooses to do what the senate has already done, and that's the simple act of funding our government without making extraneous and controversial demands in the process. unfortunately right now they continue to tie demands of the government like limiting a woman's access to contraception, all to save face after making impossible processes to the extreme right-wing of their

party. an important part of the affordable care act takes place tomorrow. the affordable care act is moving forward. that funding is already in place. this is a law that passed both houses of congress, a law that bares my signature, a law that was upheld by the supreme court, a law that voters chose not to repeal last november, a law that is helps millions of americans. seniors getting cheaper drugs, making sure that insurance companies aren't spending too much money on overhead instead of health care. those things are already happening. starting tomorrow, tens of millions of americans will be

able to visit healthcare.gov to stop for affordable health care coverage. so americans who have lived for years with the fear that one illness could send them into bankruptcy, americans who have been priced out of the market will finally be able to afford coverage. >> for one more year, if we sacrifice the health care of millions of americans, then they will fund the government for a couple of more months.

does anybody truly believe that we won't have this fight again in a couple more months? even at christmas? so here's the bottom line. i'm always willing to work with anyone of either party to make sure the affordable care act works better, to make sure our government works better. i'm willing to work with anyone to grow our economy faster or create new jobs faster, to get our fiscal house in order for the long run. i've demonstrated this time and time again, often tiemmes to th consternation of my party. one faction of one party in one house of congress in one branch of government doesn't get to shut down the entire government just to refight the results of an election. keeping the people's government

open is not a concession to me. keeping vital services running and hundreds of thousands of americans on the job is not something you give to the other side. it's our basic responsibility. it's something that we're doing for our military and our businesses and our economy and all the hard-working people out there. the person working for the agricultural department in some rural community out there helping some farmers make sure that they're making some modest profit for all the hard work they're putting in. the person working for hud who's helping somebody buy a house for the first time. there's somebody in a v.a. office counseling a vet with ptsd. that's who we're here to serve.

that's why we're supposed to be carrying out these responsibilities. that's why we should be avoiding these kinds of constant brinksmanship. it's something that we do in the ordinary process of this extraordinary system of government that we have. 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. the american people sent us here to govern. they sent us here to make sure that we're doing everything we can to make their lives a little bit better, to create new jobs, to restore economic security, to rebuild the prospects of upward mobility. that's what they expect, and they understand that there are differenceness between the parties and we'll have tough fights around those differences. i respect the fact that the

other party's not supposed to agree with me 100% of the time just like i don't agree with them, but they do also expect that we don't bring the entire government to a halt or the entire economy to a halt just because of those differences. that's what they deserve. they've worked too hard for too long to recover from previous crises just to have folks here in washington manufacture yet another one that they have to dig themselves out of. so congress needs to keep our government open, it needs to pay our bills on time, and never, ever threaten the full faith and credit of the united states of america. time is running out. my hope and expectation is that in the 11th hour once again that congress will choose to do the right thing, and that the house of representatives in particular will choose the right thing. thank you very much. >> the president in the white house briefing room banging away

from the bully pulpit, banging that drum to try to get some kind of a budget deal. the fight, obviously, continues on capitol hill. mike viqueira was listening to the comments from the president. he joins us now from capitol hill. mike, i'm wondering, is there anything in what you heard from the president that will resonate for house members? >> reporter: i think that the white house understands because there are white house staffers here, obviously. they understand how capitol hill works. they understand republicans are in disarray now. the president was chasing a retreating army trying to route them, really, points out the fundamental fact that gets overlooked in the discussion, tony. that is, regardless of what happens, even if house republicans were to get their way in the latest iteration in what they're trying to do to the affordable care act, and that is to delay a key prigs provision

of it, the mandate. the affordable care act has been funded. the launch that is set to begin tomorrow, the online exchanges, and yes, there have been many glitches, there have been many problems, there have been delays in other areas. but the money's already there. it's part of a mandatory spending measure that has already passed congress three years ago with the affordable care act. there's nothing congress can do to stop that, and that's one of the fundamental ironies among the many we're confronting in the midnight hour and the potential government shutdown, tony. >> that's interest. we have a bit of sound we want to turn from the president here in just a moment. you make a very good point. the key provisions have already been funded. that's mandatory. so what is the sense that you get from the people that you talk to on capitol hill about this strategy moving forward by republicans in the house? at what point do they hit the wall here? >> reporter: you started by

asking me if i saw anything that would give a glimmer of a hope for a deal in what the president said. the president is not trying to deal here. as a matter of fact as they said, they're not negotiating on this question of the affordable care act, fondly known far and wide as obamacare. they are simply waiting for house republicans to cave in. the smart money here on washington is the writing is on the wall. after we dispense with this latest attempt that is coming back to the senate, evidently, if they can get it out to the house in the next few hours, to delay that key or fundamental provision within the affordable care act that the house is going to ultimately cave. that presents, as we talked about, some significant internal problems for john boehner. a lot of people question whether he will survive if not this the coming debt limit crisis that's coming in less than three weeks now. but the smart money is that eventually the house will have to cave, whether that's tonight before tomorrow, whether that is in the wee hours, whether that is 24 hours from now or 48 hours

from now. if there's a shutdown, many people here expect it will be very brief, if at all, and it will be averted as a result of house republicans giving in to a unified democratic party across the board, tony. >> i don't know that anyone comes out of this whole process smelling great. >> reporter: right. >> is there anything in the polling to suggest who takes the lion's share of the blame for this? we heard the president talking about needing action from house republicans. that's a bit of the blame game going on there. >> reporter: it's not a slam dunk by any means. take the fact that consistently since the obamacare was enacted three years ago, polling has shown consistently that a majority of americans disapprove of the law. they oppose the law. the average is 52.5% among all the polls according to real clear politics. is it worth shutting down the government over defunding it? the answer comes back fairly

consistently and resoundingly, no, it is not. there are another poll over who should get the blame. more people thought the republicans should get the blame, but it wasn't a slam dunk by any means. you're right. nobody comes out looking good in this. the entire city and federal government and all the branches, at least the executive and legislative, do not look good under these circumstances. i think that's clear, tony. >> let's do this, then. let's turn that bit of sound from the president talking about the two responsibilities of congress, and then let's talk about that. here's the president from a short time ago. >> of all the responsibilities the constitution endows to congress, two should be fairly simple. pass the budget and pay america's bills. but if the united states congress does not fulfill its responsibility to pass a budget today, much of the united states government will be forced to

shut down tomorrow. >> mike, i don't know that it matters what political party you're affiliated if or what your political persuasion is at this point. this seems so very fundamental. your job is to pass a budget and pay your bills. paying your bills is something we all have to do. the optics here are easy to understand. >> reporter: right. you know, it's funny how both sides, though, tony, cloak themselves in the constitution. the chief rouser, a real thorn in the side of house republican leadership, he's a pea taert republican from michigan tweeted out the other day the number one job of government is to protect individual rights. the president says the number one job is to fund the government. you can make an argument either way. in the constitution there are several number one jobs that the congress is tasked with. as far as passing these spending bills that the president was talking about, you know, it's really in both houses. when democrats run thing they

can't pass a budget. when republicans run things they can't pay a blueprint of a budget in the spring. this time of year it's this train wreck. there are 12 individual spending bills, and that's what we're talking about here. these are proposition bills. it's a fundamental duty of congress, the power of the purse to pass the bills to keep all the government agencies running and virtually every year fewer and fewer of them get passed. this year exactly zero, a big, fat zero got passed, and that brings us to the brink of what we're talking about. tony, one other things to mention. both the house and senate today, this issue of whether the military gets paid or not, the senate did -- it went under the radar amid all the other hoopla. the senate did pass a measure to ensure the military will be paid regardless of how this turns out. >> a couple quick ones. is there any doubt in your mind if there was an extension, a clean spending bill on the budget passed in these waning hours here that provided an extension for a week or so that

we would right back where we are today, a week from now? >> let's say for the sake of argument the senate does win the fight and they pass what the senate passed over the weekend. i guess it was friday. that is a temporary measure what we call in the parlance of washington reporting a stop-gap measure, tony. it only lasts until november 15th. at christmastime his family is at hawaii for the annual vacation. it happens this way every year. they play chicken yet again over federal spending, and god help us the federal debt ceiling as well. so things do not bode well. that is certainly right. tony, after talking to a number of members of congress and staff in the halls over the course of the last several days as we covered this fight, a lot of people are saying, yes, we believe ultimately the house republicans have to cave and the government will be funded at least for two months until november 15th.

one month almost or six weeks. the debt ceiling is another matter altogether, and not a lot of people are seeing a way out of that at this point. i hate to be the bearer of doom and gloom -- >> it's the reality, though, mike. >> reporter: it's the reality here in washington. the result is the consequence of all the gridlock and partisanship we've been talking about for the last several weeks. >> mike, appreciate it. mike viqueira. let's take a quick break. you're watching al jazeera america. we're back in a moment. s2úq@eñsx

u.s. and iran nan nuclear diplomacy is center stage at the white house today. president obama and prime minister netanyahu met earlier. both leaders said they were committed to upholding sanctions against iran. >> our hope is that we can resolve this diplomatically, but as president of the united states, identify said before and i will repeat that we take no options off the table including military options in terms of making sure we do not have a nuclear weapons in iran and we can stabilize the region and potential threaten the united states of america. >> john is at the white house for us. john, we heard strong warnings from israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu on iran before the meeting, and it carried over into that meeting, didn't it? >> reporter: it sure did.

he appeared to come with two time lines. if not a time line to actually attack iran's nuclear facilities, but certainly a time line to cut off diplomatic negotiations between washington and tehran in the event the iranians go back on promises to be more transparent about what their nuclear program is really all about. let's take a listen now to benjamin netanyahu, he's the israeli prime minister, and this is how he put it. >> iran is committed to israel's destruction, so for israel the ultimate test of a future agreement with iran is whether or not iran dismantles its military nuclear program. we have a saying in hebrew and you would say in english, what's the bottom line? >> reporter: after the love fest after last week between the president and rouhani, prime minister netanyahu is the only

one spoiling the party right now. he doesn't care about that, because his country is in the front line. in the event that the iranians are really secretly building a nuclear bomb, which he thinks they are, then it's his country that might be attacked first. so that's why he is hawkish on these issues giving very little ground to the president. however, the president gay very little ground to him. essentially prime minister netanyahu leaving empty-handed. we next hear from him tomorrow at the general assembly of the united nations in new york. >> appreciate that, john, from washington. let's talk to professor abashi with us now. he's a professor of iranian studies and comparative literature at columbia university. good to talk with you again. i don't know why i took the glasses off. i need them. don't be fooled by at that rain's new leadership. iran is using gestures as a smoke screen to conceal an unabated march toward a nuclear bomb. that's the message from benjamin

netanyahu. how do you respond to that? >> well, i respond to that by way of reminding us that momentous occasions and times when president obama picked up the phone and call president called rouhani, this is the most courageous thing he's done. potentially that gesture entails in addition to obamacare being his domestic signature legislation, thawing a relationship with iran, any kind of relationship with the islamic republic even at the level of kind of diplomatic relationship would be his lasting legacy of both terms of his presidency comparable to what nixon and china mean in this context. in terms of whether or not the promises of president rouhani are verifiable, both president obama has already said that and in his speech at the u.n. president rouhani and in his recent interview with abc the

prime minister is committed to that kind of transparency. that kind of transparency and verifiable thing is definitive. >> here we go. so the prime minister says, there are four demands. that iran stop enriching uranium. you don't see that happening. that its stockpiles of enriched uranium be removed from the country and that iran not make pollute plutonium. iran feels it's totally within its rights based on the npt to enrich uranium for civilian purposes. that will never be met, correct? the question is where is the room? >> exactly. you see, first of all, prime minister netanyahu is not in a position to expect and exact anything from a sovereign nation. that's number one. number two, at the moment that president obama called president rouhani, he knew all of these

factors. most of these factors are within the npt, plus the additional protocols that have been expected from iran. i have no doubt that iran is capable of meeting both -- within the confinements of what already president rouhani has indicated, enrichment and the 20%, and verification by international -- >> you're confident on that? >> it is committed. it is committed by rouhani. whether or not this is verifiable, which is a perfectly legitimate question to ask, is subject to international atomic energy verification. not for the head of another state to kind of demand and exact. >> so, professor, appreciate it. not a lot of time to talk to you, but we appreciate you getting here and being on with us. just enough time to say thank you for watching al jazeera. more news in just minutes. "inside story" is next.

gridlock, brinksmanship and the politics of shutdown. you're watching "inside story" from washington. hello. i'm sheila macvicar. america outside the washington beltway is looking and lamenting the system. brinksmanship and politics seem to be the order of the day for the u.s. congress. here we are again you must be thinking from your armchair as you watch. you're right. the house gripped by a