President Obama and Republicans used this weekend's weekly internet and media address to present their side of the federal government shutdown and how they believe the problem can be solved.
Obama urged Congress to pass a budget and end the shutdown by telling the story of Julia Pruden from Minot, North Dakota and how the shutdown interrupted her efforts to buy a home. “We put in an offer to purchase a home this weekend, and it was accepted…if funding does not go through, our chances of the American Dream [are] down the drain," Obama says Pruden wrote in a letter to her. "We have worked really hard to get our credit to be acceptable to purchase a home…if it weren’t for the direct lending program provided by the USDA, we would not qualify to buy the home we found.”

He called the shutdown "reckless and damanging," placing the blame on "the far right of the Republican party" that will not allow House Speaker John Boehner to put a bill to vote without strings attached. "The American people don’t get to demand ransom in exchange for doing their job. Neither does Congress.

Obama said there are "millions..counting on Congress to do the right thing. And I will do everything I can to make sure they do."

http://youtu.be/aEIE_-PjSIE

For the Republicans, Texas Senator John Cornyn puts the blame for the stalemate on Democrats. “It has become disturbingly clear that the Obama-Reid shutdown is no longer about health care, or spending, or ideology. It’s about politics, plain and simple," Cornyn says.

Democrats have refused to negotiate on the parts of GOP bills to fund some government operations that they don't like. “House Republicans have repeatedly sent over legislation that would fund federal operations, but Senate Democrats have rejected each and every bill. They’re effectively arguing that the House bills are simply illegitimate, because they contain policy measures that the Democrats don’t like.

Cornyn says the shutdown goes beyond disagreements over Obamacare. It’s about politics, plain and simple. The Democrats have calculated that by prolonging the shutdown, and maximizing the pain, they can bully Republicans into doing whatever President Obama and Majority Leader Reid want them to do. It’s a very cynical game, but Democrats have decided to play it."

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