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Obama says willing to talk with Republicans on budget

08 October 2013 00:06 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday said he is willing to discuss with Republicans on the government budget to end the partial government shutdown.

During a visit to the headquarters of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in Washington D.C., Obama said he is willing to engage with Republicans on talks involving any budget and fiscal issue, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

The U.S. federal government lurched into a shutdown after Congress failed to pass a funding bill before Oct. 1, the first day of the 2014 fiscal year. Republicans in the House were demanding changes to Obama's signature health care law, the Obamacare, in exchange for funding the government, which the White House opposes. The first government shutdown in 17 years has affected about 800,000 non-essential federal government workers.

However, Obama stressed that he cannot negotiate with Republicans under the threat of a debt default, urging Congress to reopen the government and raise the government's borrowing authority immediately.

Washington faces another fiscal deadline as U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew has told Congress that the federal government will reach its debt ceiling of 16.7 trillion U.S. dollars by Oct. 17, and failure to raise it by U.S. Congress would lead to a catastrophic default. However, Democrats and Republicans have not found a way to end the fiscal logjam.

FEMA employees' jobs have been made "more difficult" and some government services have been interrupted due to the government shutdown, Obama noted.