Obama, congressional leaders meet as government shutdown continues

A White House meeting on Wednesday evening among President Barack Obama and top congressional leaders ended with no apparent progress toward ending the two-day old partial US government shutdown. Republicans from the US House continued to demand changes or delays in implementing the three-year-old health care law, something Obama and Democrats have insisted they will not do. "The President made clear to the leaders that he is not going to negotiate over the need for Congress to act to reopen the government or to raise the debt limit to pay the bills Congress has already incurred," said a statement released by the White House following the meeting, which lasted more than an hour. "The President reinforced his view that the House should put the clean government funding bill that has been passed by the Senate up for a vote -- a bill that would pass a majority of the House with bipartisan support." Obama "refuses to negotiate," Republican House Speaker John Boehner said after the talks. "All we are asking for here is a discussion and fairness for the American people under Obamacare." But Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said, "We are locked in tight on Obamacare." With an Oct 17 deadline before Congress must raise the debt limit or endanger the ability of the United States to borrow money, members of both political parties speculated that the shutdown may last two weeks or longer, forcing Congress to deal with the shutdown and debt-limit issue simultaneously. "The President remains hopeful that common sense will prevail, and that Congress will not only do its job to reopen the government, but also act to pay the bills it has racked up and spare the nation from a devastating default, " the White House said.