The shutdown continues

Updated October 05, 2013 11:35:00

The US President Barack Obama is sticking to his decision not to negotiate with republicans over the government shutdown or the higher stakes fight over the federal debt ceiling. Meanwhile, there are warnings the shutdown is hampering the ability to enforce sanctions aimed at deterring Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons.

Source: AM | Duration: 4min 11sec

Topics: government-and-politics, united-states


ELIZABETH JACKSON: Day four, and the US president Barack Obama is sticking to his decision not to negotiate with Republicans over the government shutdown.

Meanwhile there are warnings the shutdown is hampering the ability of the US to enforce sanctions aimed at deterring Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons.

Here's our North America correspondent Jane Cowan.

BARACK OBAMA: Hello everybody! It's great to see ya!

JANE COWAN: Barack Obama and the vice-president Joe Biden took advantage of an unseasonably warm October day in Washington to step out of the White House on foot to grab some lunch.

BARACK OBAMA: Now I'm paying for Joe, so don't take his money.


JANE COWAN: But the sandwich shop the president chose about a block's walk away was no accident. It's one that's offering discounts and free cookies to workers who've been stood down because of the shutdown.

Besides the photo op, the president used the outing as a chance to again urge the Republican-controlled House to pass a spending measure that would re-open the government without strings attached.

Barack Obama also reacted to a report in the Wall Street Journal that quotes an unnamed senior Obama administration official as saying 'we're winning - it doesn't really matter to us how long the shutdown lasts.'

BARACK OBAMA: There's no winning when families don't have certainty about whether they're going to get paid or not.

JANE COWAN: Already, the shutdown's producing daily images of inconvenience, lost pay, and disruptions for ordinary Americans, but the latest warning is that it's also hampering America's ability to enforce sanctions on Iran, with only 11 of 175 workers in the sanctions monitoring agency still at their desks.

The messaging war continues apace, Democrats and Republicans sparring in duelling press conferences hosted by the Democratic leader of the Senate, Harry Reid:

HARRY REID: This isn't a date to the prom, this is our country.

JANE COWAN: And the Republican leader of the House, John Boehner.

JOHN BOEHNER: This isn't some damn game. The American people don't want their government shut down, and neither do I.

JANE COWAN: Democrats have crafted a new television ad, likening John Boehner to a tantruming baby:

(Crying baby from ad)

AD NARRATOR: Speaker John Boehner didn't get his way on shutting down healthcare reform, so he shut down the government.

JANE COWAN: In a bid to portray the president and Democrats as inflexible, Republicans too have hit on a new talking point, delivered here by John Boehner:

JOHN BOEHNER: All we're asking for is to sit down and have a discussion.

JANE COWAN: But, echoed by the second-most senior Republican in the House, Eric Cantor.

ERIC CANTOR: The president continues to refuse to sit down with us Republicans.

JANE COWAN: And there it was again on the lips of the one-time Republican presidential hopeful, Michelle Bachmann.

MICHELLE BACHMANN: We don't understand why the president won't even talk to us. The doors are wide open.

JANE COWAN: The Republicans are now branding the podiums they speak at with the slogan 'Let's Talk', but they're insisting on rolling back the president's signature healthcare reforms in exchange for passing a budget, something Democrats say isn't an option since the healthcare law known as Obamacare has been on the books now for several years, was enacted by proper legislative process, and has since been upheld by the Supreme Court.

The former White House press secretary Robert Gibbs:

ROBERT GIBBS: I don't think the president's going to negotiate, and I don't think the president should negotiate. I think he should sit here until they come to their senses and open government back up again.

But look, we have a hostage situation: in order to simply fund government as we do every single day, or we should do every single day, these guys have decided they want a series of things just for government to operate, and quite frankly if we start negotiating with five-year-olds about whether they should clean their room because they want ice cream before they clean their room, then government's over - it's all over, and we shouldn't be involved in that.

JANE COWAN: The fear is the standoff over the shutdown will go on so long that it rolls in to the riskier fight over raising the country's debt limit in a few weeks' time. This is Jane Cowan reporting for Saturday AM.