By North America correspondent Jane Cowan, wires
Updated Sat 5 Oct 2013, 11:25am AEST
Democrats and Republicans are still arguing, with no sign of an end to the political impasse that has shut down the US government.
The federal stoppage has left about 800,000 federal workers sidelined without pay and many others in the private sector are suffering from the knock-on effect.
On day four of the shutdown, the Democrats have released an ad likening Republican leader John Boehner to a tantrum-throwing baby.
“Speaker John Boehner didn’t get his way on shutting down healthcare reform. So he shut down the government,” the ad states.
US president Barack Obama had lunch at a sandwich shop that was offering discounts to workers stood down by the shutdown to make his point.
“There’s no winning when families don’t have any certainty over whether they are going to get paid or not,” Mr Obama said.
“Nobody is winning … that is the point. We should get this over with as soon as possible. This shutdown could be over today.”
Republicans though insist it is the Democrats’ fault because they will not negotiate.
Mr Boehner has cited an unnamed official who was quoted as saying that the White House is benefiting from the shutdown.
“This morning, I get the Wall Street Journal out and it says, ‘well, we don’t care how long this lasts, because we’re winning’,” he said.
“This isn’t some damn game. The American people don’t want their government shut down and neither do I.”
The White House took to Twitter to try to contain the damage from the quote in the Wall Street Journal, which is certain to dominate the media messaging war raging between Mr Obama and his Republican foes on Capitol Hill.
“We utterly disavow idea WH doesn’t care when it ends. House should act now, no strings attached,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said on Twitter.
His deputy Joshua Earnest also jabbed at Mr Boehner, demanding he put a temporary funding bill on the House floor.
Mr Obama is refusing to negotiate with Republicans over budget issues until they pass a temporary bill to open the government and agree to raise the $US16.7 trillion US statutory borrowing limit.
Without the raised limit, Washington could default on its debts for the first time ever later this month.
What is Obamacare?
- Affordable Care act was passed by Congress in 2010
- Promises to help tens of millions of uninsured Americans get health coverage
- Under the plan, people can buy cheap insurance on healthcare.gov
- Most coverage will cost less than $US100 per month
- Policies vary according to person’s income, location, family size and level of coverage desired
- All Americans must sign up to some form of health insurance by January 1 or face a fine
- 82.6 per cent of Americans already have health insurance – half get it through employer
- 17.4 per cent (about 53 million people) are uninsured
- Studies project about 30 million of uninsured people still won’t get insurance despite Obamacare
Republicans are demanding Mr Obama enter into talks on their goal to defund or delay his Obamacare health reform law – a step the president refuses to take.
“I was at the White House the other night and listened to the president some 20 times explain to me why he wasn’t going to negotiate,” Mr Boehner complained.
On Thursday, Mr Obama took the decision to cancel his visit to Bali for the APEC summit and Brunei for the East Asia summit, in what analysts described as a blow to his signature policy of shifting more diplomatic and military weight towards rising Asia.
“The cancelation of this trip is another consequence of the House Republicans forcing a shutdown of the government,” a White House statement said.
“This completely avoidable shutdown is setting back our ability to create jobs through promotion of US exports and advance US leadership and interests in the largest emerging region in the world.”
Mr Obama had previously cancelled onward visits to Malaysia and the Philippines next week as it was impossible to put together his huge travelling entourage at a time when much of his White House staff has been furloughed.
The shutdown was caused by Congress’s failure to pass a spending bill to fund government operations by October 1.
Hundreds of thousands of federal workers have been sent home without pay, monuments like the Statue of Liberty have been barricaded and national parks have closed down.
