based in dubai. shutdown dims hope for retail. they are worried about the economy too. the paper says a big concern is that a prolonged government shutdown could severely hurt the economy and necessarily consumer spending and, therefore, annual growth. and we got another front page from the independent and the uk that i'll mention saying it's about the budget standoff and says china's fears over the political deadlock, highlighted there. can you see that telling president obama to get a grip and mentions world markets are already jittery following the lack of progress on capitol hill. that will do it for me. thanks for with being today. "cnn newsroom" with wolf blitzer starts right now. see you tomorrow. i'm wolf blitzer reporting from washington. president obama getting ready to go before the cameras and the

microphones about an hour from. the president earlier called the house speaker john boehner but it wasn't exactly the conversation that boehner has been speaking. here is what the speaker said before he spoke to the president. >> americans expect us to work out our differences. but refuse to go negotiate is an untenable position and, frankly, by refusing to negotiate, harry reid and the president are putting our country on a pretty dangerous path. listen. there has never been a president in our history that did not negotiate over the debt limit. never. >> so what did the president say during that phone conversation? our senior white house correspondent jim atocosta is standing by at the white house. what is the white house saying about the phone call, jim? >> reporter: it's interesting to note, wolf, that the president's phone call to house speaker john

boehner came shortly after the remarks from the house speaker earlier this morning. white house officials saying the president essentially told the speaker we are where we are right now, that the president is not going to negotiate larger issues like the budget or health care until this threat of a government shutdown and a debt default have been resolved. so that is where things stand right now. really no progress versus, you know, day seven, date eight is not that much different, wolf, at this point, but the president is going to be taking questions in the briefing room at the white house in less than an hour or now or at least scheduled to do so. and it is important to note that this is basically the president's first press conference of this shutdown and so he'll be taking questions and one of those questions will likely be what house speaker john boehner said earlier this morning, that he just wants to sit down, that he just wants to negotiate, that there has never been a president who hasn't negotiated over a debt ceiling. i imagine that those will be some of the questions that this president faces but he is also going to be faced, i think,

wolf, with other questions about the dote ceiling itself. what exactly might happen to this country if we go into default. the administration has not clearly laid that out. the treasury secretary jack lew has been warning it is risky and dangerous for the nation to go over into default after october 17th but things have not been laid out specifically as to what might happen and there's also the issue, wolf, of this health care exchanges online, it has been experiencing some pretty severe glitches and delays the last several days of people who have been going to that website and trying to sign up for health insurance. i imagine those are the questions the president will be facing an hour from now. >> the president has a free week, open schedule all of this week because he was originally supposed to be in asia for the economic cooperation summit there so nothing was really scheduled until he canceled that

entire asian trip. he is going to take reporterses questions and he is doing this in the briefing room, right? >> that's right. it is important to note he did do an interview with cnbc last week and one with the a.p. went to the taylor sandwich shop by the white house on friday and made that dramatic walk out of the grounds of the white house through the gates and sort of taking questions from reporters as he was leaving and coming back in. he took some questions from reporters inside the sandwich shop but nothing like a formal i guess, press conference, if you want to call it that, but we should point out the white house in its guidance to reporters say the president delivers a statement and takes questions so this may not be a full-blown news conference that goes 45 minutes to an hour. we will have to wait and see what the president allows and what he wants to do during this event and it's about an hour from now. he has not really taken

questions from just the press in general so it will be interesting to see what comes his way. >> i'm sure it will be lively and good and we will have live coverage on cnn. jim, don't go too far away. it's a central question in the budget stalemate. are there enough votes in the house of representatives to pass legislation to fund the government with no strings attached? the answer is yes and no. a cnn survey shows there are 218 house members who say they would support a bill with no special provisions. that is the so-called clean cr or continuing resolution. that is one more than the minimum need to do pass the measure 217. the tally includes all 200 democrats and 18 republicans but the republicans are not willing, at least so far, to force speaker john boehner to bring that kind of continuing resolution to the house floor. let's bring in our chief congressional correspondents dana bash who is watching what is going on. it's a dilemma right now.

no obama care and nothing else, just to get the government back working, why wouldn't they be in favor of procedural vote that would go around the speaker and let this vote come up? a couple of reasons. some of the reasons who say they are willing to do this, buck their party, would be willing to do it if the bill was in front of them. it's one thing to vote for something that they believe is right and it's another thing to really actively work to under mine the leadership of the house and john boehner and what they have to do is work hand in glove with democrats to defy john boehner and house republicans and for more of them the conservative base of the party that would go nuts and find primary challenges for some of those who wouldn't have primary challengers from within. the other reason is timing.

so-called discharge petition which is the mechanism they have to use in the house to get around this would take a long time and probably wouldn't happen until the end of october which would be after i guess we hope they work out a deal in another way. >> the debt ceiling has been to be resolved by october 17 athen people say combine everything and get it all resolved by october 17th and the president said he is not going to negotiate on those issues and the speaker saying he won't accept them without negotiation, some concessions on the part of the administration. looks like a stalemate is at hand right now. in the meantime, the senate is going forward. the democratic majority in the senate with legislation to raise unconditionally the debt ceiling for a year, right? >> that's right. we will see the first procedural vote on that in the senate as soon as this week. that is a key thing to watch, because, obviously, democrats have the majority in the senate but as we have seen with so many votes before, they don't have a

filibuster proof majority and don't have the 60 votes needed to break a filibuster. they say i want to make sure that the debt ceiling is raised and vote with the democrats there. it doesn't look like at this point the 60 votes are there but what the bill would be is to extend the debt ceiling, raise it through the next election so we don't have to go through this until after november 2014. >> seems like we go through this every few months. it's getting tired. right now, gloria borger is with us as well. our chief political analyst. do you see any movement at all, any openings on the part of the speaker or the part of the president? >> no. they had the phone call and they both came out saying no negotiation. i think there are lots of members looking for some kind of way to get out of this so it doesn't look like it was hatched by the president and it doesn't

look like it was hatched by the speaker but rather that it was hatched by members of congress. there's talk of a supercommittee. we have been there before, by the way, right? at this point, i don't think see any progress. i mean, the thing that is working in terms of getting some kind of deal is that the clock is ticking and that enough members of congress understand how catastrophic it would be if they did not raise the debt ceiling. so they have to try and figure out a new definition for the word negotiate. they have to figure out a way to get around it and, you know, i'm hopeful, but i'm not overall optimistic. let me put it that way. >> not willing to negotiate. the speaker says you must negotiate so maybe they are willing to talk. >> they don't want to have a conversation. >> what is wrong with a conversation some have a conversation. >> but the question is can they talk through surrogate? in effect, that is what a

supercommittee might be is a bunch of surrogates. can you take it out of the hands of the principles in some way, shape, or form and let other people do it? i don't know if that is acceptable to democrats, dana. >> the house republicans are going to vote today on another idea that gloria is talking about, to say let's put together a group of negotiators. they are not calling it a supercommittee because that is that baggage that failed. bad karma. put together a group of negotiators and have them work on issues relating to government funding and issues relating to the debt and deficit. the problem is still the fundamental difference between the two which is they seem to want to have that group of negotiators work something out before they pass raising the debt ceiling, before they open the government. >> a lot of people are paying attention to -- there seems to be a thunder of silence right now as far as the vice president of the united states. joe biden, he usually, when

there is is a crisis, he served in the senate for decades. he knows all of the players. he helped resolve the last major fiscal cliff crisis and all of that. where is joe biden right now? >> i have been reporting on this and a story about this earlier today in politico. the point is this. joe biden has always been somebody who sort of came in and did the 11th hour deal when it came to the debt ceiling in 2011 and when it came to the fiscal cliff of last year. it's no secret as dana knows all too as well, there are lots of democrats, most prominent among them, harry reid, the democratic leader in the senate, who thought that the democrats got the short end of the stick in some of these deals so he is not eager to have joe biden back in this. but i've spoken with people close to joe biden, but say what is joe biden supposed to do? there is no negotiation going on.

this is a very different time. this fight is predominantly in the house, by the way, and not in the senate. and, by the way, mitch mcconnoll, with whom joe biden has worked in the past, has a tough re-election fight. he is not a leader in trying to get a deal worked out in all this. you're shaking your head because he is nervous about it. what i was told, though, that might have gotten harry reid a little bit upset is biden and mcconnell at the last principals meeting last week when the leads met with the president, biden and mcconnell walked out together and had a bit of a conversation together. i was told it was nothing meaningful and nothing to talk about. it was sort of hi, how are you doing kind of conversation and no negotiations took place so a lot of hard feelings, i would say. >> the meeting at the white house when the president met? i was told only five people were in there and biden was the sixth

person? >> i believe he was. >> yes. i'm also told that biden is every meeting at the white house in which they are discussing these fiscal cliffs. >> that makes sense to me. >> there are hard feelings on matters. >> a lot of democrats, you walk the halls in congress and i totally agree with gloria and talk to loyal democrats who love joe biden who will tell you privately they think they got really gypped in a lot of the deals that we have seen over the past two years, which is why we are where we are and they feel they are at a disadvantage for that reason. >> one more point that a reid person made to me about why this is different this time. reid's caucus is totally united this time. he is not worried about his red state democrats going off to a reservation. he has a united caucus right now, so you don't need somebody to come in and broker. a, no brokering to be had and, b, democrats are in the same place on this. >> i'm going to have jim acosta, our white house correspondent,

check to see was exactly in that meeting last week with the president. we know harry reid was there. >> i was told they talked informally in that meeting. >> if the vice president was not in that meeting when the president met with the democratic and republican leaders, the four leader of the house and senate, that significant if joe biden was not in that meeting but we will check and find out if he was there. that is one phone jim can make like that and we can get the quick answer. stand by. we are standing by for the president of the united states. president obama will hold a news conference at 2:00 p.m. eastern, about 45 minutes or so from now. he'll take reporters' questions and won't just go in the briefing room and make a statement as he often does. we will have live coverage. stay with us. the house speaker john boehner says he wants to talk to the president, have a conversation with the president but one republican lawmaker says boehner faces rebellion if he compromises.

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the united states will have a formal news conference in the white house briefing room at the top of the hour. we will have liver covera cover. he'll being making a statement on the partial government shutdown and debt ceiling looming and take questions at 2:00 p.m. eastern. you see everybody getting ready in the briefing room for the president. in the meantime, both sides digging in on day eight of the partial government shutdown and nine days before the debt ceiling deadline. >> i want to have a conversation. i'm not drawing any lines in the sand. it's time for us to just sit oin and resolve our differences. >> you want to talk about discretionary spending, you want to talk about farm bill, you want to talk about postal reform, you want to talk about health care. we'll talk. but extend the debt ceiling. >> the speaker says he does want to have a conversation with the president. they had a phone conversation

today. apparently not much achieved. one republican lawmaker says the speaker faces a rebellion if he decides to compromise. congressman paul brown of georgia is joining us from capitol hill. congressman, thanks for coming in. >> glad to be with you, wolf. >> how difficult of a position is the speaker in right now from your perspective? >> i'm very proud of the speaker. you see the american people have spoken very clearly. they don't want the government shutdown. they do not want america to default upon its debt but they don't want obama care and what this whole issue is all about. obama care is already destroying job creation. it's already hurting our economy. it's going to destroy the occupation relationship. it's going to destroy the quality of health care in america. it's going to destroy budgets from family budgets and business budgets all the way up to the federal budget and it must stop. that is what this fight is all about. >> but you know you're a physician. you know it's the law of the land. it was passed by the house and senate and signed into law by

the president. the supreme court approved it saying it was constitutional. the president was reelected by 5 million votes so it is the law of the land right now, as you well know. >> wolf, it's the flaw of the land in actuality because it's hurting our economy and hurting the american people. we see reports all across america where people are losing their jobs. i talked to a businessman who has over 200 employees that are full-time and he is going to release them all and hire people back part-time. we are having people all over this country hurt by obama care. it must go. right now the government is spending and taxing too much and regulating too much and borrowing too much. both parties are guilty. it must stop. that is what this fight is all about. obama care is the flaw of the land and it must go away. >> what would it take for you, congressman, to vote in favor of reopening the federal government ending the government shutdown?

>> wolf, i voted over and over again to try to reopen parts of the government and we must reopen the government and i'm all in favor of that. republicans are all in favor of that. but the thing is we got a law on the land, a flaw of the land, obama care, that is hurting our economy. >> hurting the american people today and -- >> be specific. what would it take for you to vote in favor of ending the government shutdown? >> i want to see obama care reschedule for the implementation. we need to defund it and delay it. we need to put it on the shelf and stop this implementation because it is destroying our economy. >> you know the president -- the president is not going to do that, congressman. >> well, the american people are hurting. if enough american people demand that this thing be put on hold, that we delay the implementation and put it on hold and reschedule the implementation until we can do something that

makes sense. my patient option act is the thing that makes sense because my patient option act literally will lower the health care cost of all americans and provide access to good quality health care for everybody in this country and it's going to save medicare from going broke. that is the kind of policy we must put in place instead of the obama care. >> i want to be precise. snars the government shutdown you demand at least some concession on obama care. what about raising the nation's debt ceiling by october 17th? what would it take for you, congressman, to vote in favor of raising of debt ceiling? >> nobody wants to see america default. in fact, we will not default. it's absolutely critical that we not default. but president obama just the other day said that raising the debt ceiling was not going to cost a single dime. he said it's not going to grow our deficit by one single dime. how preposterous is that? our american people are saddled with a sun sustainable debt.

everybody has part of that debt of 53,000 per person. it has to quit. >> what concession would you like to see the president make that would enable you to vote in favor of raising the debt ceiling? >> i'd like to see us pass my balanced budget amendment which is the best one out there. family businesses, families themselves have to live within their budget and we must balance our budget. we must -- >> you're not demanding any concessions that obama care to raise the debt ceiling? is that what i'm hearing? >> well, obama care must go. it's destroying america. >> are you linking obama care to raising the debt ceiling? >> well, we have got to stop out of control spending and that is the bottom line. obama care just spends too much and taxes too much and regulates too much and borrows too much. and it's going to be the biggest spending issue of the federal government if we don't put it on hold and what i'm fighting for is to put it on hold to delay it and defund it so we can get the

american people policy makes sense for them and my patient option act is that solution i. i want to be precise. as far as ending the government shutdown you want to ling some aspect of obama care but not necessarily requiring a link to obama care to vote in favor of raising the debt ceiling. is that accurate? >> wolf, i want to give the american people the relief they need from this out of control spending and i'll do everything i possibly can doto do that and obama care will destroy everything we know as a nation so we have to focus on doing something to work for the american people. that's what i'm in this process of doing is working for the hard working americans. barack obama has given his big business buddies an exemption. we have to exempt america from obama care. >> you, obviously, hate obama care. >> wolf, i'm a medical doctor. >> i know you're a physician. i know you're a physician.

you were a little bit more extreme on that national review online article. i'll read to you the quote you said and you tell me if you're sticking to what you said to the "national review" online. you said america is going to be destroyed by obama care to whatever deal is put together must at least reschedule the implementation of obama care. this law is going to destroy america, and everything in america, and we need to stop it. do you still stand by all of those pretty extreme words? >> wolf, i've already told you, today, obama care is already destroying job creation. it's already hurting our economy. we have to put obama care on hold. we have got to defund it, delay it and hopefully eventually repeal it and replace it with my patient option act which is the only thing that makes sense for the american people. it makes sense for good quality health care and it makes sense economically and help all americans to be able to buy insurance and have access to

good high quality health care for all americans and that is the kind of policy that we need to put in place, not obama care. >> i know you hate it, but i just want to be precise and then i'll let you go. america is going to be destroyed, you say, by obama care. america? this united states of america is going to be destroyed if this law is fully implemented? is that what i hear you saying? >> it's already destroying jobs. it's going to -- i. know you say it's destroying jobs but you're not saying america. the united states of america, this country of ours will be destroyed by obama care, that's what you quoted here as saying. i want to give you a chance to revise and amend if you'd like to. >> well, it's going to take us off the edge economically and destroy our economy and it's going to push us into a total economic lapse of america. that is exactly by what i mean it's going to destroy america. >> all right. congressman, thanks very much. you're running for that

republican senate seat for saxby chambliss, correct? >> that's correct. >> we will have many opportunities to continue this conversation if you're willing. thank you so much. >> absolutely. thanks, wolf. god bless you. >> appreciate it very much. keeping your food safe, despite this partial government shutdown. there is information we need to share with you. we are going to tell you about an investigation into a salmonella outbreak that made hundreds of american people sick. everyone has their own way of doing things. at university of phoenix we know learning is no different. so we offer personalized tools and support, that let our students tackle the challenge of going back to school, like they do anything else... their way. let's get to work.

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we are waiting for president obama. he is going to be walking into the white house briefing room an half hour or so from now at the top of the hour and not only making a statement on the government shutdown and raise the nation's debt ceiling but answering reporters' questions. a news conference with the president. we will have live coverage. we are billing up to that right now. in the meantime, we are getting new details right now about a salmonella outbreak that may have sickened hundreds of people in 18 states. the apparent source of the

outbreak is foster farms that says it's working with investigators. the chicken in question was mainly distributed in california, oregon, and washington state. foster farms says no recall has been announced. let's bring in elizabeth cohen who is digging into this story for us. several federal and state agencies but people want to know all over the country is our food safe? >> reporter: foster farms, the folks who productive this chicken, associated with the salmonella outbreak, they say it is safe. on their website, they put this. no recall is in effect. products are safe to consume if properly handled and fully cooked. so they say go ahead and eat this chicken. you don't need to throw it away. that is from their website, capitalization and all. they say go ahead and eat the chicken. you don't need to bring it back to the store or throw it away. they say it's safe to consume if properly handled and fully cooked. >> we know the partial government shutdown has affected

some parts of food safety investigation. various agencies have different degrees of furloughs. what can you share with us about this? the impact of the government shutdown and the safety -- and the health of our food, if you will. >> reporter: it's interesting, we asked the usda any time of link between the salmonella outbreak and the partial government shutdown? they said, look. no, we did our investigation before the shutdown even happened. there is no contexts. it's interesting. the cdc, they let go most of their people who were involved with their foodborne illness investigations and recently they brought some of them back so i think that says something right there. that they felt the need to bring some of them back. i also wanted to read to you a tweet from the director of the cdc. he said the cdc had to furlough 8,074 people. they protected you yesterday and can't tomorrow. other tweets didn't shut down.

we are less safe. when you see we are less safe, it certainly gives you paws. >> he's a very smart guy. tom frieden, a very smart guy. we are waiting for president obama who is in the white house briefing room making a statement on the government shutdown and answering reporters' questions. we will check in with all of our reporters and analysts right after this. [ male announcer ] campbell's angus beef & dumplings. hearty cheeseburger. creamy thai style chicken with rice. mexican-style chicken tortilla. if you think campbell's 26 new soups sound good,

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president obama goes before the cameras and the microphone shorlted on day eight of the partial government shutdown. he is scheduled to make a formal statement at the top of the hour and take reporters' questions in the white house briefing room. earlier, the president called the house speaker john boehner and reiterated he will not renegotiate on the threats involving the government shutdown and the debt ceiling. he is willing to negotiate after those matters are resolved. let's bring in our senior white

house correspondent jim acosta and chief political reporter dana bash. they are all watching what is going on. jim, i was confused earlier. the vice president joe biden, a lot of people are suggesting he is missing in these discussions involving the government shutdown and hasn't been visible publicly but i assume playing a role behind the scenes. the meeting the president had with the four leaders in the house and senate and republicans, was he there? >> reporter: he was there. it's interesting to talk about the vice president's role in all of this. he was instrumental in brokering a deal to avert physical catastrophe the last time this came up in 2011. he was apparently talking behind the scenes with the senate majority leader mitchell mcconnell extensively.

one thing i heard from a democratic sort who would have some knowledge as to what is going on here at the white house and thesenegotiations, these discussions with congress, the way it was explained to me, wolf, is that because mitch mcconnell has also been very silent through much of this, he is facing a primary battle back in kentucky as he is running for re-election. he is basically being primaried by the tea party in kentucky. he has a tough re-election battle. according to that source, mitch mcconnell has pulled back from the discussions. mick mcconnell and joe biden were sort of working together in that last standoff. this democratic source explains why joe biden has not been quite as visible ps as you mentioned, sometimes these discussions are going on and they are not read out to the news media. jay carner, the white house secretary, said to to me the other day in the briefing room sometimes these conversations are not read out to reporters for political reasons and perhaps because john boehner,

the speaker of the house, doesn't want those calls right out because, you know, people in the tea party might be upset with the house speaker if it's known he is having lots of conversations with the president. i have also been told by white house officials this time around we are not seeing as many conversations between the president and house speaker john boehner as we saw in the last standoff mainly because both sides are so locked into these positions, these polarized positions that there really hasn't been that much to say at this point. perhaps because of that conversation earlier this morning, that is starting to change a little bit, wolf. >> maybe it will. maybe that conversation will be followed up by an actual one-on-one meeting the president of the united states and the speaker of the house. dana bash is watching all of this and is back up on capitol hill. you were right earlier when you suggested that the vice president was in that meeting and we wanted to double or triple-checked if, in fact, he was. joe biden knows the players. he knows the issues. no one knows the legislative

role as joe biden. what do they want to hear from the president? the republican leadership, when he goes before the cameras in about 20 minutes now, what do they want to hear? >> they want to hear he is willing to negotiate. do they think they are going to hear it? i don't really think that they believe that. they understand inside the republican caucus, inside the walls of republican leadership offices where the president's position is. he has made it abundantly clear, never mind to those of us in the public and those of us in the press so many times. he did call the republican leaders, the democratic leaders down to the white house for the meeting you were just discussing with the vice president last week, and he was very stern, we are torled, by sources in both parties about the fact he is not

going to negotiate specifically and especially on the debt ceiling. you hear republicans say soments that every president has negotiated in some way, shape, or form for something to raise the debt ceiling. democrats argue that might be true, but up until the 11th hour and not down to the wire we are right now and as we were two years ago in 2011. i think in their heart of hearts, republicans probably realize that, but you know what? we are in a very different world than we were even two years ago because of the fact that john boehner has gone down this road that he didn't want to go down to begin with, negotiating first on obama care, on the spend bill, and now on the debt ceiling. he really wanted to start off, wolf, with the debt ceiling. he wanted to put all of their eggs in the debt ceiling basket with regard to negotiations and it got a little muddled and i think republicans up here on

capitol hill can see that. so that's why they are having a hard time getting back on the message train, if you will, and the president has been very consistent. i'm not negotiating. you know, we have to pay our bills. we have to pass the debt ceiling increase and fund the government. i'm not negotiating. i will afterwards but not beforehand. my suspicion is that we are going to hear a lot of that reinforcement of the message from the president. just like we will from democrats who are just down the hall behind me in the senate having their weekly lunch, as are republicans. >> looks like that stalemate, at least for now, continues. dana, thank you. don't go too far away. jim acosta is over at the white house getting ready to go into the briefing room himself. could the 14th amendment to the institution be used to raise the debt ceiling? we will tell you how some are floating that idea and how it might work.

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only 15 minutes or so away from the president of the united states getting ready to go into the white house briefing room, make a statement on the government shutdown, and then answer reporters' questions. we will have complete live coverage here on cnn. short of the deal with republicans to raise the nation's debt ceiling, is there another way to either raise the debt ceiling or keep paying the nation's bills? back in 2011, the former president bill clinton suggested the 14th amendment to the constitution potentially could be used to avoid a government default and here is why. part of the amendment says this. i'm quoting. the public debt of the united states shall not be questioned. back in 2011, the white house rejected the idea of using that 14th amendment to take action on its own, but this time, it doesn't appear -- maybe not completely to be ruling it out, although some officials say the

president has no intention of doing so. some members of the senate, including the senate finance committee chairman, max balkas sa needs to be taken into koorgs. jeffrey toobin, what do you say is in the 14th amendment could it in an emergency be used by the president to zi go aheraise financial obligations without a formal vote in the senate or the house? >> wolf, this is one of the paradoxes of the constitution. article one of the constitution very clearly says it's up to congress to borrow money, to spend money. that is the power of the purse that congress has. but then as you just pointed out, there is this 14th amendment which somewhat mysteriously to could pay the

united states debt. i think it is a possible argument that could be made. it is not clear that the courts would step in. they might say this is between the president and the congress, we are not going to get involved. as a political matter, putting aside the legality, i think it's very, very unlikely that the president would undertake this kind of thing to do. >> we had a little abbreviated version of that 14th amendment. the section 4 of the 14th amendment says the validity of the public debt of the united states authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pengs amentions and of services shall not be questioned. this was done right after the civil war. some have argued, well, maybe this is applicable to the civil war and, you know, what we call debts incurred for payments of pensions and bounties for services but would not necessarily be the same as far as paying debts the u.s. has to foreign countries who buy t-bills or whatever. what do you say?

>> it's important to point out that no president has ever tried this. and just talking about the politics of it for a second. if the president were to suggest that he might be doing this, it would take all of the pressure off congress. congress would simply say we don't have to deal with this problem. the whole point of the president's effort has been to put pressure on congress. also, if the president were to do this, there is certainly going to be -- there are certainly people in congress who would say this is an impeachable offense and this is something the president cannot do. it would shift the focus entirely is congress doing its job to did the president violate the law? i can't imagine the obama white house wants to have that conversation when they can put the responsibility all on congress, which is what they have tried to do from the beginning. >> i know that the president does not want to use the 14th amendment and made that clear on many occasions, including today after that phone conversation that the president had with the

house speaker john boehner. let me get that white house statement that was relieved. the last line of that statement says that the president, in the conversation with john boehner said, he noted, meaning the president, he noted that only congress has the authority to raise the debt limit and failure to do so so here the president in the statement from the white house, the press secretary said only congress has the authority to raise the debt limit. might be settled law as far as we're concerned. >> the white house has been very consistent on that. the question remains. if the country is looking at an absolute financial cataclysm, looking at heading into a depression because of massive defaults, would the president step in and invoke the 14th amendment? so far they have said absolutely not. the question remains, in a supreme emergency, would that

happen? i don't think we know to 100% certain certainty. >> i think you're right. as you always have. once again, we're awaiting the president. he's going to have a news conference in it the white house briefing room. he's scheduled to make a statement at the top of the hour, then take reporters' questions. we'll have live coverage coming up. will his words console investors out there? we'll get a market check after the break. [ male announcer ] there will be more powerful storms. that's why there's new duracell quantum. only duracell quantum has a hi-density core. and that means more fuel, more power, more performance than the next leading brand. new duracell quantum. trusted everywhere.

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so how's wall street taking the news of extending the nation's debt ceiling? alison, how much does wall street care about what's going on here in washington? >> it cares a whole lot. as you can see, the dow down again, second day in a row. down in the triple digits. this is kind of wall street's way of firing yet another warning shot to washington, saying it's time to find a solution, not just to the shutdown but to the debt ceiling issue as well. you know, they say, listen, the way wall street sees it, there's going to be more of this kind of selloff if washington doesn't get its act together and come up with a solution on both of those issues. the path of least resistance as far as wall street sees it is down. you look at the dow, it's been down ten of the past 13 sessions. most analysts expect stocks to stay under pressure until a deal is done. most really believe that a default is unlikely, but here's the thing. if one does happen, wolf, one analyst says the s&p 500 can

drop 45%. you'd feel that right in your investments because the s&p 500 is what your retirement funds, your 401(k) funds closely sort of track. the estimate it could drop 45%, that's a big deal. wolf? >> that's a huge deal. a lot of people would be -- that would be a disaster for so many people. thanks so much, alison. we'll continue to watch the markets, see how it reacts after the president's news conference. he starts in a few minutes. we'll have live coverage after this. campbell's angus beef & dumplings. hearty cheeseburger. creamy thai style chicken with rice. mexican-style chicken tortilla. if you think campbell's 26 new soups sound good, imagine how they taste. m'm! m'm! good!

hello, i'm wolf blitzer in washington. we want to welcome our viewers here in united states and around the world. this is cnn's special coverage of what could be a major moment in the standoff in this shutdown crisis with congress. any moment now the president will speak live. he will make a statement and then answer reporters' questions at the white house briefing room. you're looking at live pictures on this day eight of the partial government shutdown and with the debt ceiling only nine days away. both sides are still saying it's the other guys' shutdown, the other guys' fault. john boehner saying today he got a phone call from the president. the president apparently telling him he will not negotiate on a government funding bill or a debt limit increase. >> refusing to negotiate is an untenable position and frankly by refusing to negotiate, harry

reid and the president are putting our country on a pretty dangerous path. listen, there's never been a president in our history that did not negotiate over the debt limit. never. >> the white house says that is not how this call went down. apparently the president told boehner he is willing to negotiate, just not under the threat of the government shutdown and the debt ceiling. now consider this. this whole thing could be over today if a clean spending bilked pass the house of representatives without any conditions attached. the speaker says there just aren't enough votes for that kind of legislation to pass. the president insists there are enough votes. so how about this? we've been doing a rolling cnn survey of the entire 435 members of the house of representatives. there are two vacancies right now. it shows that this bill potentially, if it were to get to the floor, it could get