about. we've heard a lot about professional republicans for the past several days saying they don't want the shutdown. there's a simple way to prove it. send the bill to the floor. let everybody vote. it will pass. send me the bill. i will sign it. the shutdown will be over, and we can get back to the business of governing and helping the american people. it could happen in the next half hour. national parks, monuments, offices would all re-open immediately. benefits and services would resume again. hundreds of thousands of dedicated public servants who were worrying about whether they could pay the mortgage or pay the car note, they'd start going back to work right away. so my simple message today is,

call a vote. call a vote! put it on the floor, and let every individual member of congress make up their own minds. they can show the american people, are you for a shutdown or not? if you're not for a shutdown, vote for the bill. if you're for a shutdown, you won't vote for a bill. we don't have to twist anybody's arms, but that way the american people will be clear about who's responsible for the shutdown, or alternatively, more hopefully, they'd be clear that this is something that doesn't make sense and we should go ahead and make sure that we're looking out for the american people. it should be that simple. as i said, the problem we've got is that there's one faction of one party in one-half of one branch of government that's so far has refused to allow that yes or no vote unless they get

some massive partisan concessions in exchange for doing what they're supposed to be doing anyway. in exchange for doing what everybody else agrees is necessary. they won't agree to end the shutdown until they get their way. and you may think i'm exaggerating, but just the other day one tea party republican called the idea of a shutdown wonderful. another said that a shutdown is exactly what we wanted. well, they got exactly what they wanted. now they're trying to figure out how to get out of it. just yesterday one house republican said -- i'm quoting here, all right, because i want to make sure people understand i didn't make this up. one house republican said, we're not going to be disrespected. we have to get something out of this, and i don't know what that even is.

that was a quote! we're not going to be disrespected. we got to get something out of this, and i don't know what that even is. think about that. you have already gotten the opportunity to serve the american people. there's no higher honor than that. you've already gotten the opportunity to help with businesses like this one, workers like these. so the american people aren't in the mood to give you a goody bag to go with it. what you get is the intelligence professionals being back on the job. what you get is our medical researchers back on the job. what you get are little kids

back in the head start. what you get are our national parks and monuments open again. what you get is the economy not stalling but continuing to grow. what you get are workers continuing to be hired. that's what you get. that's what you should be asking for. take a vote. stop this farce, and end this shutdown right now! if you're being disrespected it's because of that attitude you've got. you deserve to get something for doing your job. everybody here just does their job, right? you don't -- if you're working here and in the middle of the day you just stopped and said, you know what? i want to get something, but i

don't know exactly what i'm going to get. i'm going to top working until i get something. i'm going to shut down the whole plant until i get something. you'd get fired! right? because the deal is you've already gotten hired and you've got a job and you're getting a paycheck, and so you also are getting the pride of doing a good job and contributing to a business and looking out for your fellow workers. that's what you're getting. it shouldn't be any different for a member of congress. unlike past shutdowns, i want to make sure everyone understands this. the tendency is to say both

sides are at fault. this one has nothing to do with deficits or spending or budgets. our deficits are falling at the fastest pace in 60 years. we've cut the deficits in half since i took office. some of the things the republicans are asking for right now would actually add to our deficits. seriously. so this is not about spending and this is not about fiscal responsibility. this whole thing is about one thing. the republican obsession with dismantling the affordable care act and denying affordable health insurance to millions of americans. that's all this has become about. that seems to be the only thing that unites the republican party these days. through this whole fight they've said, the american people don't want obamacare, so we should

shut down the government to repeal it or delay it. but here's the problem. the government's now shut down, but the affordable care act is still open for business. so they're not even accomplishing what they say they want to accomplish. in the first two days since the new marketplace, basically big group plans we've set up, the first two days they opened, websites where you can compare and purchase new affordable insurance plans and maybe get tax credits to reduce their costs, millions of americans have made it clear they do want health insurance. more than 6 million people visited the website healthcare.gov the day it opened. nearly 200,000 people picked up the phone and called the call center. in kentucky alone -- this is a state where i didn't win kentucky.

so, you know, i know they weren't doing it for me. in kentucky nearly 11,000 people applied for new insurance plans in the first two days just in one state, kentucky. many americans are finding out, when they go on the website, that they'll save a lot of money or get health insurance for the first time. so i would think if, in fact, this was such a disaster that the republicans say it's going to be, that it was so unpopular, they wouldn't have to shut down the government. they could wait. nobody would show any interest. there would be like two people on the website. everybody would then vote for candidates who want to repeal it. it's not as if republicans haven't had a chance to debate the health care law. it passed the house of representatives and passed the senate, the supreme court rules it constitutional. you remember all this.

last november voters jeekted the presidential candidate that ran on a platform to repeal it. so the affordable care act has gone through every single democratic process, all three branches of government. its the law of the land. it's here to stay. i've said to republicans, if there are specific things you think can improve the law to make it even better for people, as opposed to just gutting it and leaving 25 million people without health insurance, i'm happy to talk to you about that. but a republican shutdown won't change the fact that millions of people need health insurance and that the affordable care act is being implemented. the shutdown does not change that. all a shutdown is doing is making it harder for ordinary americans to get by and harder for businesses to create jobs at

a time when our economy is just starting to gain traction again. you've heard republicans say that obamacare will hurt the economy, but the economy's been growing and creating jobs. the single greatest threat to our economy and to our businesses like this one is not the affordable care act. it's the unwillingness of republicans in congress to stop refighting a settled election or making the demands that have nothing to do with the budget. they need to move on to the actual business of governing. that's what will help the economy. that's what will grow the economy. that's what will put people back to work. more than that, house republicans need to stop careening from one crisis to another in everything they do. have you noticed that? since they've taken over the house of representatives, we have one of these crises every three months.

have you noticed? and you keep on thinking, all right, well, this is going to be the last one. they won't do this again. then they do it again! i know you're tired of it. i'm tired of it. it doesn't mean that they're wrong on every single issue. i've said i'm happy to negotiate with you on anything. i don't think any one party has a monopoly on wisdom, but you don't negotiate by putting a gun to the other person's head or, worse yet, but putting a gun to the american people's head by threatening a shutdown. by the way, even after congress re-opens your government, it's going to have to surround it very quickly and do something else and that's pay american workers and pay the bills.

i want to spend a little time on this. it's called -- it's something called raising the debt ceiling. it has a lousy same, and a lot of people think i don't think we should raise our debt ceilings. it sounds like we're raising our debt. that's not what this is about. it's not something that raising our debt. it allows the u.s. treasury and government to pay the bills that congress has already racked up. i want you to think about this. if you go to a restaurant and you order a meal, you eat it, maybe you have some wine, maybe you have two glasses of wine. great meal. then you look at the tab and it's pretty expensive. you decide, i'm not going to pay the bill. well, you're not saving money. you're not being frugal.

you're just a deadbeat. right? if you buy a house, and you decide, man, this month i'd rather go on vacation somewhere, so i'm not going to pay my mortgage, you didn't just save yourself some money. you're just going to get foreclosed on. so you don't save money by not paying your bills. you don't reduce your debt by not paying your bills. all you're doing is making yourself unreliable and hurting your credit rating. we'll start getting those phone calls and notices in the mail. the next time you try to borrow, somebody is going to say huh-uh, because you don't pay your bills. you're a deadbeat. the same is true for countries. the only thing that the debt ceiling does is to let the u.s. treasury pay for what congress

has already bought. that's why it's something that has been routine. traditionally it's not a big deal. congress has raised it 45 times since ronald reagan took office. this is just kind of a routine part of keeping the government running. the last time the house republicans flirted with not raising the debt ceiling back in 2011 -- some of you remember this -- our economy took a bad hit. our country's credit rating was downgraded for the first time just like you'd be downgraded if you didn't pay your mortgage. this time they are threatening to actually force the united states to default on its obligations for the very first time in history. now, you'll hear john boehner and mitch mcconnell and these other republicans say, we don't want to default, but everybody knows that it's -- it's written about in all the papers.

their basic theory is, okay, if the shutdown doesn't work, then we are going to try to get some extra concessions out of the president. we'll put like a long laundry list of all the things we want and can't get passed on our own. if we don't get it, we'll tell them we won't vote to pay the country's bills. we'll let the country default. i'm not just making this up. it's common knowledge. every reporter here knows it. i want you to understand the consequences of this. as reckless as a government shutdown is, as many people as are being hurt by a government shutdown, an economic shutdown that results from default would be dramatically worse. in a government shutdown, social security checks still go out on time. in an economic shutdown, if we

don't raise the debt ceiling, they don't go out on time. in a government shutdown, disability benefits still arrive on time. in an economic shutdown, they don't. in a government shutdown, millions of americans, not just federal workers, everybody faces real economic hardship. in an economic shutdown, falling pensions and home values and rising interest rates on things like mortgages and student loans, all those things risk putting us back into a bad recession, which will affect this company and those workers and all of you. that's not -- that's not my analysis. that's every economists out there saying the same thing. we've never done it before. the united states is the center of the world economy, so if we screw up, everybody gets screwed

up. the whole world will have problems, which is why generally nobody has ever thought to actually threaten not to pay our bills. it would be the height of irresponsibility. that's why i said this before and i'm going to repeat it. there will be no negotiations over this. the american people are not pawns in some political game. you don't get to demand some ransom in exchange for keeping the government running. you don't get to demand ransom in exchange for keeping the economy running. you don't get to demand ransom for doing your most basic job. the sooner that the republicans in congress heed the warnings not just of me or democrats like chris and john, but heed the warnings of the chamber of commerce and ceos and economists

and a whole lot of republicans outside of congress. they're all saying, do not do this. they're all saying to congress, do your job. the sooner you do your job, the less damage you'll do to our economy and businesses like this one. pass a budget and end the government shutdown and pay our bills and prevent an economic shutdown. just vote and end the shutdown and you should do it today so we can get back to growing this economy, creating jobs and strengthening our middle class. let me close just by sharing a story i heard as i was getting ready to come here today. many of you already know it. two years ago a mulch factory next to here main equipment

storage facility caught fire, and most of the company's ekwichlt was destroyed, causing millions of dollars of damage. but even while the fire was still burning, dozens of employees rushed over to the facility and tried to save as much as they could. some of you were probably there. when they finished cutting fire lines and sprays down the perimeter of their own property, they went over to help their neighbors. afterwards even though all the employees here at m. louise are on salary and even though the company just took a big financial hit, they paid everyone overtime and along with each check they included a personalized note saying just how much they appreciated the efforts of the workers.

mmunity whe restaurants and businesses are rallying around the regulars, and they're

looking out for all the dedicated pub servants furloughed. restaurants are saying, you know what? while you're on furlough, come on. we'll give you a burger. we'll give you a meal. we'll help you out. that's the american ideal. it says we're working together, looking out for one another, meeting our responsibilities, doing our jobs, thinking about future generations. that's why i believe ultimately reason and common sense will prevail. that spirit at some point will infiltrate washington as well. because i think the american people are so good and so decent, they're going to get better behavior from their government than this. we'll once again make sure this is a country where you can make it if you try. so thank you, everybody. god bless you, and god bless the

united states of america. >> president barack obama wrapping up a spirited speech at a small asphalt plant in suburban maryland. this is day three of the government shutdown. a shutdown which, if it lasts much longer, the president said will start to affect local businesses like this family-owned construction company called the m. louise construction company owned by a woman, a minority woman. he also says the shutdown, if prolonged, could affect the economic recovery, and he says republicans should end this, quote, farce. republicans have, of course, tied the budget bill to their efforts to get rid of the health care law, which is why we currently do not have a budget. let's bring in randall pinkston live in washington to break it down a bit further for us. randall, let's start by saying this is the first time we've seen the president speak publicly since the meetings with speaker boehner and other congressional leaders yesterday. he specifically called out house

speaker john boehner as not doing enough. clearly, nothing decided in that meeting last night. >> clearly not. no agreement reached at all. there are some negotiations and discussions going on at senior levels, we don't know about them. what we know is there's an increasing notch house republicans who have been standing firm with speaker boehner who are saying enough is enough. it's time to vote on the so-called continuing resolution without any amendments attached. in other words, with no reference to obamacare, the so-called clean bill. some republicans are talking about joining with the democrats to bring the measure to the floor. if that happens, as the president says, as all members of congress say, if that does happen, there's a great likelihood it will be passed and the shutdown will be over. the problem is that it is up to the speaker to bring measures to the floor, so it's going to take some procedural tricks, if you will, or adjustments to make

that happen. at this point we don't know how many republicans are in cahoots with democrats to do this. >> clearly the president at least in his speech seems to think there are enough republicans that would vote for a clean bill in the house at this point. you know, meantime this debt ceiling debate looms large. i think a lot of americans don't really understand why the debt ceiling, which is basically the money that this country can borrow to pay all of its bills, the money we've already spent in this country, we need to pay those bills, and the government, as i understand it, runs out of credit around october 17th. the u.s. treasury department came out today in a report and said, if this debt ceiling deal is not made, the downturn could be worse than the great recession, which we're still digging out of in this country. are republicans still talking about tieing obamacare to the debt ceiling debate? >> reporter: well, i think what we have here is a certain

faction of the house of representatives, republicans, who have seen the democrats and president obama in particular in the past yield on this issue. recall back in 2011 we got the so-called sequestration because of another debt ceiling situation wherein the president and democrats agreed to a lower amount of federal spending. what the democrats are now saying -- when we hear republicans say are you refusing to compromise and come to the table, democrats say we came to the table. the money that we want you to pass this continuing resolution to keep the government open is the amount of money that you said we needed to spend. it's the amount of money that provided for these sequestrations that are already in effect. so there's no need to compromise. that's been done. if you want to talk about long-term budgets, they say let's do it separately but not as part of continuing the government or as part of raising the debt ceiling.

dangerous times, and something needs to be done quickly to avoid economic catastrophe. >> absolutely. randall pinkston live in washington. randall, thank you. as randall was saying, the stock market, it is taking another hit as the government shutdown continues. the dow falling for a second day as investors worry the gridlock in washington won't be solved anytime soon. adding to the unease, rising unemployment claims and a decline in a key index on the services industry. in addition, the labor department says it won't be releasing the key september jobs report tomorrow because of the shutdown. at the centers for disease control, most employees there are now furloughed. as flu season kicks off, there won't be anyone tracking the virus as it spreads. robert ray joins us now live outside of the cdc headquarters in atlanta. good morning, robert. >> good morning to you. the headquarters at the centers for the disease control and

prevention quite quiet right now. the building behind me normally a flurry of activity, about a few hundred people inside there right now. the cdc has roughly 13,000 employees around the world, 50 states, 50 countries. 68% of them are on furlough. that leaves about 4,000 who continue to work. if you -- if you want to look at what the cdc does, if we look at the cia, which protects america from, say, the bad guys around the world, creates a sort of under the ground cover for all of us, that's sort of what the cdc says. they take the health pulse of the country and make sure that everybody here is nice and safe and infectious diseases aren't going everywhere across the country. one interesting thing, the pledge to the american people of the cdc is to be a diligent steward of funds entrusted to the agency. they can't do that right now because washington can't pass a

budget. i'll bring in a guest here. this is barbara nelson. thank you for joining us here today. you work at the cdc. tell us about influenza. all of the injections that people can take to protect them will go out to doctors and health clinics. what will stop you from actually covering this correctly? >> thank you, robert. this is the beginning of the influenza season, the annual influenza season. some of the work we do to support the health of americans through the influenza season won't be getting done now. for example, we cannot do the analytics. we're taking in information, but we can't process it and send it back out to health care providers and to health departments to let them know what needs to be done. >> reporter: thank you. i hate to cut you off. we're running out of time. if there's a problem in, let's say, chicago, the cdc will not be able to send a team in to look at exactly how the influenza has spread there. so people's lives run the risk. that's the bottom line here in

atlanta at the cdc. it's a situation that they would like to change very, very quickly. back to you. >> robert, wasn't the cdc already dealing with a budget crunch? >> reporter: absolutely. sequestration cut 5% of their budget. that's about $285 million. so if my math is correct, their total budget of about 4.5 billion, so they already across the board have seen a lot of issues. they're running very lean on all of their scientists and researchers and their capabilities and what they can do, and clearly, like i said earlier, the building behind me only a couple hundred people here. someone said to me earlier it's like the weekend, and you know, how can people do their job especially make sure that america is healthy if there's nobody to do it? back to you. >> such an important job, the cdc does. robert ray, thank you so much for joining us from the headquarters there in atlanta. thank you for watching al jazeera. i'm stephanie cj.

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