The political stalemate over the Budget between the Democrats and Republicans showed no signs of easing on Thursday as a meeting between an “exasperated” US President Barack Obama and lawmakers failed to end the crisis that could spell doom for the American economy.
Obama told lawmakers 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, the White House said after the meeting, as the shutdown entered its third day.
The US 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.
“The House could act today to reopen the government and stop the harm this shutdown is causing to the economy and families across the country,” the White House said.
In a TV interview, Obama said he was “exasperated” by the sequence of events that led to shutdown of his government and warned the Wall Street that they should also be concerned with this development.
House of Representative Speaker John Boehner told reporters that Obama during the meeting reiterated one more time that he will not negotiate.
Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund said though the impasse has been shrugged off by financial markets, the uncertainty could tighten credit.
“The shutdown so far has been fairly benign. The effects on the markets have been relatively low,” Laura Kodres, Assistant Director of IMF’s Monetary and Capital Markets Department.