hello, i'm wolf blitzer in washington. the president of the united states momentarily will be coming out of the oval office and addressing the nation, today being the first day of the affordable care act. obama care as it's called. people can go online and start signing up. he's invited some guests to the rose garden. you see them right there. they'll be standing behind the president. these are president who will be able to take advantage of some of the benefits of obama care. the president will mention them, single them out, explain some of the positive elements of this new national health care reform law.

today is the first day people can sign up for it. it actually goes into effect january 1st. the president no doubt will make the case why this is so important. at the same time, the president no doubt will rail against republicans, especially house republicans. he will blame them for the government shutdown, this partial government shutdown that has gone into effect today, today being the first day of this shutdown. here comes the president right now. we'll listen and hear what he has to say. he's joined by kathleen sebelius, the secretary of health and human services. >> good morning, everybody. at midnight last night, can everybody hear me? mic working? good morning, everybody. admit night last night, for the first time in 17 years, republicans in congress chose to shut down the federal government. let me be more specific. one faction of one party in one house of congress in one branch

of government shut down major parts of the government. all because they didn't like one law. 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. they've shut down the government over an ideological crusade to deny affordable health insurance to millions of americans. in other words, they demanded ran some just for doing their job. and many representatives, including an increasing number of republicans have made it clear that had they been allowed by speaker boehner to take a simple up or down vote on keeping the government open, with no partisan strings attached, enough votes from both parties would have kept the

american people's government open and operating. now, we may not know the full impact of this republican shutdown for some time. it will depend on how long it lasts. but we do know a couple of things. we know that the last time republicans shut down the government in 1996, it hurt our economy. and unlike 1996, our economy is still recovering from the worst recession in generations. we know that certain services and benefits that america's seniors and veterans and business owners depend on must be put on hold. certain offices, along with every national park and monument must be closed. and while last night, i signed legislation to make sure our 1.4 million active duty military are paid through the shutdown, hundreds of thousands of civilian workers, many still on the job, many forced to stay home, be aren't being paid. even if they have families to support and local businesses

that rely on them. and we know that the longer this shutdown continues, the worse the effects will be. more families will be hurt. more businesses will be harmed. so once again, i urge house republicans to reopen the government. restart the services americans depend on. and allow the public servants who have been sent home to return to work. this is only going to happen when republicans realize they don't get to hold the entire economy hostage over ideological demands. as i've said repeatedly, i am prepared to work with democrats and republicans to do the things we need to do, to grow the economy and create jobs and get our fiscal house in order over the long run. although i should add, this shutdown didn't about deficits or spending or bugs. after all, our deficits are falling at the fastest pace in

50 years. we've cut them in half since i took office. in fact, many of the demands the republicans are now making would actually raise our deficits. know, no, this hutdown is not about budgets or deficits. 's about rolling back our efforts to provide health insurance to folks who don't have it. it's all about rolling back the affordable care act. this more than anything else seems to be what the republican party stands for these days. i know it's strange that one party would make keeping people uninsured the centerpiece of their agenda. but that apparently is what it is. and, of course, what's stranger still is that shutting down our government doesn't accomplish their stated goal. the affordable care act is a law that passed the house, it passed the senate, the supreme court ruled it constitutional. it was a central issue in last year' election. it is settled.

and it is here to stay. and because of its funding sources, it's not impacted by a government shutdown. and these americans are here with me today because even though the government is closed, a big part of the affordable care act is now open for business. and for them and millions like them, this is a hick day for a good reason. it's been a long time coming. but today, americans who have been forced to go without insurance can now visit healthcare.gov and enroll in affordable new plans that offer quality coverage. that starts today. and people will have six months to sign up. so for the next six months, people are going to have the opportunity in many cases for the first time in their lives to get affordable coverage that they desperately need. now, of course, if you're one of the 85% of americans who already have health insurance, you don't

need to do a thing. you're already benefitting from new benefits and protections that have been in place for some time under this law. but for the 15% of american who's don't have health insurance, this opportunity is life-changing. let me just tell folks a few stories that are represented here today. a few years ago, amanda barrett left her job to take care of her parents. for a while she had temporary insurance that covered herrer multiple sclerosis. when it expired, many insurers wouldn't cover her and she ended up paying $1200 a month. starting today, she can get covered for much less because today's new plan can't use your medical history to charge you more than anybody else. sky high premiums once forced nancy beagle to choose between paying rent or paying for health insurance. she's been uninsured ever since.

she pays all of her medical bills out of pocket, puts some on her credit card making them even harder to pay. nancy says they talk about those who fall through the cracks. i fell through the cracks ten years ago and i've been stuck there ever since. well, starting today nancy can get covered just like everybody else. trenaise edwards was laid off a year ago oo from today. six months ago diagnosed with a brain tumor. she hasn't received treatment yet. her daughter lenaise, a student at the university of maryland is considering dropping out of school to help pay her mom's bills. starting today, thanks to the affordable care act, trenaise can get covered without forcing her daughter to give up on her dreams. so if these stories of hard-working americans sound familiar to you, well, starting today you and your friends and

your family and co-workers can get covered, too. just visit healthcare.gov and there you can compare insurance plans side by side, the same way you'd shop for a plane ticket on kayak or a tv on amazon. you enter some basic information and you'll be presented with a list of quality affordable plans available in your area with clear descriptions of what each plan covers and what it will cost. you'll find more choices, more competition, and in many cases lower prices. most uninsured americans will find that they can get covered for $100 or less. and you don't have to take my word for it. go on the website, healthcare.gov, check it out for yourself and then show it to your family and your friends and help them get covered just like mayors and churches and community groups and companies are fanning out to do across the country. and there's a hot line where you can apply over the phone. and get help with the application. or just get questions that you

have answered by real people in 150 different languages. so let me give you that number. 1-800-318-2596. 1-800-318-2596. check out healthcare.gov. call that number, show your family and friends how to use it. and we can get america covered once and for all so that the struggles that these folks have gone through and millions around the country have gone through for years finally get addressed. let me just remind people why i think this is so important. i heard a striking statistic yesterday. if you get cancer, you are 70% more likely to live another five years if you have insurance than if you don't. think about that. that is what it means to have health insurance. set aside the issues of security and finances and how you're impacted by that. the stress involved in not

knowing whether or not you're going to have health care. this is life or death stuff. tens of thousands of americans die each year because they don't have health insurance. millions more live with the fear that they'll go broke if they get sick, and today we begin to free millions of our fellow americans from that fear. already, millions of young adults have been able to stay on their parents' plans until they turn 26. millions of seniors already have gotten discounts on tear prescription meds. millions of families have received rebates from insurance companies that didn't spend enough on their health care. so this law means more choice, more competition, lower costs for millions of americans. and this law doesn't just mean economic security for our families. it means we're finally addressing the biggest drivers of our long-term deficits. it means a stronger economy. remember, most republicans have

made a whole bunch of predictions about this law that haven't come true. there's no death panels. costs haven't skyrocketed. they're growing at the slowest rate in the 50 years. the last three years since i signed the affordable care act into law are the three slowest rates of health spending growth on record. and contrary to republican claims, this law hasn't destroyed our economy or the past 3 1/2 years, our businesses have created 7.5 million new jobs. today we learned our manufacturers are growing at the fastest rate in 2 1/2 years. they have factored in affordable care act. they don't think it's a problem. what's weighing on the economy is not the affidavitable care act, but the constant series of crises and the unwillingness to pass a reasonable budget by the a faction of the republican party. now, like every new law, every new product roll out, there are

going to be some glitches in the signup process along the way that we will fix. i've been saying this from the start. for example, we found out that there have been times this morning where the site's been running more slowly than it normally will. the reason is because more than one million people visited healthcare.gov before 7:00 in the morning. to put that the in context, there were five times more users in the marketplace this morning than have ever been on medicare.gov at one time. that gives you a sense of how important this is to millions of americans around the country. that's a good thing. and we're going to be speeding things up in the next few hours to handle all this demand that exceeds anything that we had expected. consider the just a couple of weeks ago, apple rolled out a

new mobile operating system, and within days, they found a glitch. so they fixed it. i don't remember anybody suggesting apple should stop selling iphones or ipads or threatening to shut down the company if they didn't. it's not how we do things in america. we don't actively root for failure. we get to work, we make things happen, we make them better and keep going. so in that context, i'll work with anybody who's got a serious idea to make the affordable care act work better. i've said that repeatedly. but as long as an i am president, i will not give in to reckless demands by some in the republican party to deny affordable health insurance to millions of hard-working americans. i want republicans in congress to know, these are the americans you'd hurt if you were allowed to dismantle this law. americans like amanda, nancy and trenaise who now finally have the opportunity for basic

security and peace of mind of health care just like everybody else including congress, the notion that you'd make a condition for reopening the government that i make sure these folks don't have health care, that doesn't make any sense. it doesn't make any sense. now, let me make one closing point. this republican shutdown threatens our economy at a time when millions of americans are still looking for work and businesses are starting to get some traction. so the timing is not good. of course, 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. but as i've said before, the irony that the house republicans have to contend with is they've shut down a whole bunch of parts of the government but the affordable care act is still

open for business. and this may be why you've got many republican governors and senators and even a growing number of reasonable republican congressmen telling the extreme right of their party to knock it off, pass a budget. move on. and i want to underscore the fact that congress doesn't just have to end this shutdown and we open the government. congress generally has to stop governing by crisis. they have to break this habit. it is a drag on the economy. it is not worthy of this country. for example, one of the most important things congress has to do in the next couple weeks is to raise what's called the debt ceiling. and it's important to understand what this is. this is a routine vote. congress has taken this vote 45 times to raise the debt ceiling since reagan took office. it does not cost taxpayers a

single dime it. doesn't grow our deficits by a single dime. it does not authorize anybody to spend new money whatsoever. all it does is authorize the treasury to pay the bills on what congress has already spent. think about that. if you buy a car and you've got a car note, you do not save money by not paying your car note. you're just a deadbeat. if you buy a house, you don't save money by not authorizing yourself to pay the mortgage. you're just going to be foreclosed on your home. that's what this is about. it is routine, it is what they're supposed to do. this is not a con exto me.

it is not some demand that's unreasonable that i'm making. this is what congress is supposed to do as a routine matter. and they shouldn't wait until the last minute to do it. the last time republicans even threatened this course of action, many of remember back in 2011, our economy staggered. our credit rating was downgraded for the first time. if they go through with it this time and force the united states to default on its obligations for the first time in history, they'd be far more dangerous than a government shutdown as bad as a shutdown is. it would be an economic shutdown. so i'll speak more on this in the coming days, but let me repeat. i will not negotiate over congress's responsibility to pay bills it's already racked up. i'm not going to allow anybody to drag the good name of the united states of america through the mud just to refight a settled election or extract

ideological demands. nobody gets to hurt our economy and millions of hard-working families over a law you don't like. there are a whole bunch of things that i'd like to see pass through congress that the house republicans haven't passed yet. and i'm not out there saying, well i'm going to let america default unless congress does something that they don't want to do. that's not how adults operate. certainly that's not how our government should operate. and that's true whether there's a democrat in this office or a republican in this office. doesn't matter whether it's a democratic house of representatives or a republican-controlled house of representatives. there are certain rules that everybody abides by because we don't want to hurt other people just because we have a political

disagreement. so my basic message to congress is this, pass a budget. end the government shutdown. pay your bills. prevent an economic shutdown. don't wait. don't delay. don't put our economy or our people through this any longer. i'm more than happy to work with them. -- work on the things that the american people sent us here to work on creating new jobs, new growth, security for our middle class. we're better than this. certainly the american people are a lot better than this. and i believe that what we've accomplished for amanda and nancy and trenaise and tens of millions of their fellow citizens on this day proobs even when the odds are long and obstacles are many, we are and always will be a country that

can doing great things together. thank you very much, everybody. god bless you. thank you, all of you for the great work that you're doing, and thank you, kathleen sebelius for the outstanding work she's doing making sure that millions of americans can get health insurance. >> reporter: mr. president, if you won't negotiate how can you bring an end to this? >> mr. president -- >> wouldn't a house senate conference help? >> reporter: the world war ii vets -- >> you hear reporters shouting questions at the president. he's clearly not going to answer those questions. he's taking his guests back into the oval office over there at "the west wing" of the white house from the rose garden. the president making a strong samt statement as we all anticipated, not only speaking of the great benefits from his perspective of the affordable care act, obama care as it's called which goes into effect in so many areas today.

the first day that people can start signing up for the affordable care act but also railing against republicans blaming them directly for this government absolushutdown and w them if they try to attach any conditions whatsoever to raising the debt ceiling when the treasury department says the u.s. will run out of money, won't be able to repay debts, he is not going to negotiate. i will not negotiate with the congress on raising the debt ceiling. gloria borger and newt gingrich are here. the president has excellent points that he makes there. the problem is, right now he's not really discussing these behind the scenes with the house republicans in order to end this government shutdown. those are the people he has to speak to, invite them over to the white house and get down to some real negotiations. >> yesterday, he did call congressional leaders, republican, democratic. >> it's one thing to make a phone call and say let's talk.

it's another thing, come on over. if you're the speaker of the house and the president says company over to the only office, the speaker will come over. >> in the days when speaker, you might have spoken with, if he goes down to talk to the white house and if he says look, you know, i've got a divided caucus and i don't think he can deliver and sort of say okay, we're all going to do this and sign on to this, because his caucus is so split. >> go ahead, newt. >> i just think this has been a standard white house ploy that is nonsense. >> the whole event, that was a 20-minute address. >> it is a speaker of the house. it is a complicated muddled situation. the speaker is the person who can schedule whatever's going to get scheduled. if the president had been serious, they had have been

meeting all morning and he would have come out and said we had a good meeting. we're still working on a lot of things. this was a purely partisan campaign speech. the fact that he says i will not negotiate, who is he is to say that? what about the constitution? what do you mean you won't negotiate? we have routinely added things add the to the debt ceiling since eisenhower. for the president to suddenly announce a rule new rule, i'll talk to the russians, i'll talk to iranians, meet with the israelis but republican congressmen they're beneath me. >> the as you know, the white house point is here what are the so-called concessions he could give in the full faith and credit of the united states or keeping the government open? that's not his to give. >> of course it is. he can say i'll sign the keystone pipeline. i'll sign the repeal of the tax on medical devices. i will work with you on six other things. there are lots -- first of all, they don't sit down in a room and say what can we give.

they say how can i give another partisan speech proving i don't want talk to anybody. >> there's a way to talk about legislation as opposed to attaching things to a debt ceiling. >> he won't even do that. >> hold your thoughts a little bit because we have a lot more to digest. a lot more to assess. this subject is obviously not going away. politics and the people national parks, monuments, memorials off limits today closed for business. will the government shutdown have a real effect on the next election? s.e. cupp, van jones are here, as well. lots more news coming up right after this. we are now more

hours into day one of the government shutdown. all eyes are on congress as they go back and forth with various spending proposals. but even with a flurry of activity, still no deal in sight, and that means almost 800,000 federal workers are being sent home without pay. here's the cost. among other things, the shutdown means a loss of about 200 million dollars a day to an already troubled economy, about the same amount we spend in afghanistan every single day. in a week, the loss could be a billion dollars. that's half the cost of rebuilding moore, oklahoma, after the deadly tornado there in may.

we just heard from president obama. we've already heard from members of congress as they dig in their heels. >> we have a good day of anarchists. why? because the government is closed. speaker boehner and his band of tea party radicals have done the unthinkable. they've shut down the federal government. >> since when is it beyond the power of the united states congress to change existing law by amending it or repealing it or defunding it? it's absolutely unprecedented to have a majority leader of the united states senate, someone who knows this institution as well as anyone, to say that congress is powerless to act? >> those people know that if they act reasonably here, that they will get an ultraright wing nut case tea party primary

challenge funded by the likes of the koch brothers and others, very he very generously funded. they've managed to take the government hostage intimidate their own truly conservative members, those who aren't cruz ite radical libertarians. >> i feel like i'm serving in the nation's largest kindergarten only we're in charge of the federal checkpoint and the nuclear arsenal. >> i call on the speaker, the president, and mr. reid to gather publicly in front of tv cameras and work the differences out. >> this is not an episode of "the west wing." this is real life. >> a game of political chicken. congressional ping-pong, the glam game, whatever you want to call it, the shutdown is here and we are now deep into day one. but while the politicians duke it out on capitol hill, the federal workers and a lot of other american people become the pawns in what is going on.

let's discuss what's going on with two of the coast hosts of "crossfire," s.e. cupp and van jones are joining us right now. van, what's wrong with letting house and senate members get together and discuss the current problem right now? maybe they might not be able to resolve it, but maybe they could work it out. that's what the house members have proposed. the senate majority leader harry reid has said no way. >> the same house members wouldn't get together the last time that the senate was wanting to do it. this whole ping-pong thing goes back and forth. there would be nothing wrong with boehner letting all the people in congress have a vote. how about majority rule in the house? you have majority rule, this thing would be resolved but but have a minority faction of one party in one branch, one house of one branch of a three-branch government holding up the whole process. so i think both sides now are locked into a dynamic. we've got to get out of it

shore. today is a day war we have a breakdown in washington, d.c. but a break-through in the rest of the country where people are signing up for health care. that's just as important for me. >> i would trust van jones to lead on this issue more than the president. he's got it right. everyone has to come to the table. and we are here today not just because congress has failed to lead, but because the president has failed to lead. he's acting like a bystander in this problem. in fact, it's been his failure to explain and sell his namesake legislation over the past three years that's brought us to this point. chris christie said it perfectly last night. he said if you're in the executive waiting for leadership out of the legislative branch, you will be waiting forever. president obama has not who the effectively brought people together. >> i just think that's unfair and i'll tell you why. first of all, the program he has put forward, obama care is not the program that people have been demonizing. one reason the republicans have

gone to such extremes, when you run away from a republican program which obama put forward, from the heritage foundation, mitt romney's program, that is a business friendly program. the only way you can get away, there's no place to go but go crazy. you have ted cruz now the speaker of the house. you can president obama negotiate with teds cruz over what's happened in the house? >> ted cruz, rand paul, mike lee, marco rubio were all elected running against obama care promising constituents they would do everything they could to end it. what would you do, break that promise to your constituents? they want them to act like this. >> who wants them to act like this. >> their constituents back home. i see it all day on twitter. thank you, ed cruz for pd staing up for us. thank you for trying to put an end to this. >> the polls say even those who don't like obama care say don't shut down the government. even those who don't like obama care say it would be better for them to deal with this in the

normal course of legislation. this is a very sad day for america. even if we were to cave right now and give you everything you wanted for a two-month extension, in two months, we'd be right back here again. then the debt ceiling on top of that. we're in a situation where i want to celebrate the fact that all across the country ordinary americans can sign up for health care. this is a big deal for low income people and working people. you got working people all across this country who go to work every day ta catch an early bus and don't have health care. today they can get it. >> but maybe when they work out the glitches and they can sign up, maybe they can. >> will the two of you be co-hosting crossfire" later tonight? >> indeed we will. >> thanks very, very muff. later tonight, crossfire" 6:30 p.m. eastern with van jones and s.e. cupp. coming up, as a result of what's going on, the shutdown is, national monuments have been closed. ♪

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they wouldn't take no for an answer. ♪ >> veterans, many in wheelchairs as you can see, were able to make it to the world war ii memorial here in washington. the national park service closed all of its parks, including national memorials as a result of the federal government shutdown. let's bring in erin mcpike on the scene for us. what actually happened here? because it's generating a lot of commotion out there. >> reporter: yeah, well, wolf, just yesterday, the national park service was ta saying one of the saddest things that would come of a government shutdown is that these honor flights, world

war ii veterans who come to washington to visit some of the monuments like the world war ii memorial can't do it because they would be barricading many of the monuments as they did this morning. but already, there were honor flights scheduled to come in today. so bus loads of veterans from iowa, mississippi and texas did show up to the memorial and people actually removed the barricades from around the world war ii memorial so they could get in and see it, wolf. >> erin, hold on for a moment because dana bash is getting knew, potentially significant news up on capitol hill. what are you learning? >> reporter: this could be directly related to what erin is reporting on. deidre walsh and i are getting from republican sources meeting right down the hall right now that their next move will be to relent a little bit and to put a bill on the house floor that funds the government piecemeal starting with the park service which would affect the area where erin is right now, the

national park service, veterans and also the d.c. government. unclear how the senate is going to react to that. it might be hard for them to beat that back since those are some symbolic and also important functions of the government. but that is something that we are told that house republicans are going to come out and begin the process of doing later today. very interesting. you know what we don't know for sure is if this will be so-called clean meaning they won't have any strings attached. that would be a nonstarter in the senate. if there are no strings attached, it would be hard for senate democrats to vote against things. >> they already did that as far as military men and women getting their paychecks. that was proposed in the house and then it was passed by the senate yesterday. when i interviewed senator ted cruz of texas, he said in "the situation room," he said flatly he was praising harry reid for allowing that clean bill the continuing resolution as it's called to allow the men and women of the u.s. military

uniformed men and women to continue receiving their paychecks on time and he then proposed let's do this for all sorts of other areas including park service, park police, and then he went point by point by point. it sounds to me like what these republicans are now proposing is what ted cruz recommended on our show yesterday. but tell me if you disagree. >> reporter: it certainly wouldn't be the first time house republicans would do something cruz recommended. as you're talking i'm processing the politics of this. and as i was thinking about what erin was saying and the fact we are live at the park service. if democrats do want to the play hard ball, they understand what republicans understand which is why they're putting the park service up first which is that that is the most il lustratetive of a government shutdown, the closed monuments, closed veterans memorial, things that people like to do asturiss, as americans in this country.

symbolically, those things being closed could hurt the republican brand if they are in fact blamed as they expect to be for the shutdown. so if democrats do want to play had ball in the senate, they could say no, if you want to fund the government, fund it all. we're not just going to open the park service so it doesn't look bad for you. we'll see what they say. >> we'll see what they say. potentially significant development, another proposal coming from the house republican side. now it's up to harry reid and the democrats in the senate to respond. we'll see how they respond this time. dana, don't go too faraway. erin mcpike, thanks to you, as well. how will the shutdown impact you, empty offices mean many federal services are not available today. see how long it lasts. we're going to outline what you need to know. stay with us. i'm angela, and i didn't think i could quit smoking but chantix helped me do it. i told my doctor i think i'm... i'm ready. [ male announcer ] along with support, chantix (varenicline) is proven to help people quit smoking. it reduces the urge to smoke.

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>> the despite intense opposition to the affordable care act by some members of congress, it is the law of the land. and today is the first day of what's called open enroll, perhaps no one better understands how this new law

will affect so many americans out there than the secretary of health and human services, kathleen sebelius who is joining us right now. let's talk, madame secretary, what's going on. we're hearing there are serious glitches. even the president acknowledged it. tell us how bad these problems are on this first day of open enrollment. kathleen sebelius, can you hear me? it's wolf. >> i can, how are you? >> thank you so much. you're at the white house. we just heard from the president. even he is suggesting there are some glitches out there on this first day of open enrollment. what's going on? you've had a lot of time to prepare for this day. >> i think what we're seeing, wolf, is a very high volume of interested americans. and that's very good news. so the simultaneous hits on the website, we had over a million visitors before 7:00 a.m. this morning. and we are working as we speak

to make sure that we can process people in a more timely fashion. but i think the volume-related issues are ones that we welcome, frankly. it shows it how many people are eager to get real information, eager to see plans side by side, make a comparison, figure out what they might qualify for in terms of financial help and then make a good choice. just to remind your viewers, this is an open enrollment period that lasts for six months. starting today, october 1st, lasting all the way till march 31st, 2014. so it isn't that you miss something if you don't visit the site today. if people also want in-person help on the phone, we have a toll free call-in line with translators available who speak up to 150 languages. so we're thrilled that so many people have paid attention, have visited healthcare.gov. we welcome them to keep coming,

shop, get information, ask questions, make sure you understand what plans might work for yourselves and your families and for the first time for that 15% of american who's don't have the affordable health coverage, they finally have health security headed their way. >> so what happens over the next six months, some people decide they don't sign up for the affordable care act, sign up for health insurance? what happens after march to those people? >> well, at the end of march, when those individuals who can afford health insurance who choose not to purchase it this year when had he pay their taxes, they'll be asked whether or not they have health insurance. and they will owe a fine as part of their tax bill making sure that we encourage people to sign up because you can't pick and choose when you will be sick, be in an accident, have a diagnosis, and we think it's

much better for people to have some personal responsibility, but for the first time, a lot of people who have been priced out of the market or locked out of the market with a pre-existing health condition have seen a change in those rules. companies have to compete for their business based on service and based on price and we know that for the large number of people, that 15% who don't have coverage, they can actually find a plan in their home community with a private company for less than $100, less than the price of your cell phone bill. that's very good news for individuals like the people who are with the president in the rose garden just a few minutes ago. >> i've heard from a lot of young people especially who have suggested they're willing to pay that fine because it's going to be a lot less than signing up for health insurance. they think they're healthy. they may be in their 20s and 30s and are not going to sign up but willing to pay the fine. what kind of fine are you

talking about would be levied on their incometach returns? >> the first years, the fine is $85. it gradually increases over time. and i know there's a lot of belief that somehow young invincible americans will never sign up. we didn't see that when the law changed to allow we have 3 million young adults right now who were previously uninsured before the affordable care act who now have affordable coverage. i travel all over this country and hear from young people each and every day who say, you know, it's got to be affordable. i've got to be able to pay it in my overall income, but i know it's really stupid not to be covered. i know something could happen. i know i could fall on the basketball court or be in a car accident, and i'm one step away from bankruptcy or putting those bills on my parents. if it's affordable, i want to take a look. that's what we're saying to

people. visit healthcare.gov. find out options that are affordable for you. we also have for young americans under 30-year-olds, a catastrophic plan to choose from if they don't want full coverage but want to make sure if some terrible accident happens or they have to have a serious surgery that they won't be bankrupt. they can choose a catastrophic plan or full coverage. we think the options are affordable enough and understandable enough that it's really a brand new day for lots of americans. >> yeah, there are four categories, the bronze, silver, gold, the platinum. you pay a lot less with the bronze, but you get a higher co-pay, a lot more deductible. those are just some of the issues out there. kathle kathleen sa biel yus. we have a lot more to talk about. the shutdown, how is it impacting you ?

a lot of empty offices in the federal government. we'll tell you what that means. in the nation, we know how you feel about your car.

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obviously they're not doing it. you got grown men sitting up at the white house that can't even sit down and talk to each other. >> a bunch of jerks running the show up there and it's not fair. >> it's stupid that they can't get together and get it organized and do whatever they're supposed to do. >> just heard a lot of people are very angry. they're frustrated with the federal government right now. why wouldn't they be? some of those hit the hardest by this shutdown are government workers. the numbers bear repeating. get this. 783,000 federal workers have now been furloughed on this first day of the government shutdown. that according to a cnn analysis of contingency plans published by the federal government on friday. let's bring in colleen kelly. she's the president of the national treasury employees union. how many of those are in your union? >> we represent over 150,000. more than half of them have been furloughed. >> mostly here in the d.c. area?

>> believe it or not, only 15% here in the d.c. area. >> what are you hearing from them? these people need this money to survive. they're not wealthy people. >> they're not. they're like most americans. they live paycheck to paycheck. they have mortgages and rents and tuition to pay. they're helping elderly parents as well as their children. they've had their pay frozen the last few years. >> now, i remember the last time there was a government shutdown. i was the white house correspondent for cnn. they wound up paying back the salaries that people missed out during the government shutdown ret retroactively. there's no guarantee that will happen this time. >> there is no guarantee. it would take a specific act of congress. >> what are you hearing from your members? what can they do to turn this around and end this government shutdown as quickly as possible? >> well, they're very frustrated and angry and scared. they live paycheck to paycheck. they're reaching out to their congressmen and senators, asking

them to get the government back to work again, and they are standing with ntu as we continue this fight to make sure that whether they're shut down for one day or five days that they will be paid. >> i always thought that at the last minute they'd work out some sort of deal, get some sort of legislation through so there wouldn't be a government shutdown. but i was wrong. my optimism did not prevail. did you really think it would come down to this? >> i hoped, but by yesterday i was afraid this was going to happen unfortunately. >> so it's a sad, sad day for your union, for hundreds of thousands of workers out there. think of all the people, the families that depend on these workers. the pain is obvious. >> it is. and many families are two federal employee families. the spouses are both federal employees. two people have been sent home from work today with no pay. >> they have to work this out. thanks very much. good luck to you and the members of your union. >> thank you. >> that's it for me. thanks very much for watching. i'll be back at 5:00 p.m.

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