writing about it today. there s some evidence that the polls for congress are shifting radically towards the democrats. i expect that would fade over time. if they actually breach the debt ceiling, i don t think anyone knows the devastation that could have to the republican party. so the families of five troops killed over the fwweeken in afghanistan will not be getting death benefits because of the government shutdown. andrea mitchell exclusively breaking this report. death benefits are usually paid within 36 hours to help pay for funerals and the flights for loved ones to meet the cousins. andrea will have more at 1:00 p.m. eastern. here s another reason to be outraged by the government shutdown. a young mom battling cancer who says because of congress, she can t get the treatment she needs to fight for her life. she s going to join me coming up to talk about her personal story in just a few minutes. and just how worried is wall street over washington s dance on the debt ceilin
us is the final countdown around raising the debt ceiling. so now it s not just a question of ideology or debates on the house floor or senate floor or whether or not people will negotiate with one another, it s actually very serious business and it s going to ripple into our mortgage markets. it s going to affect people like the guest that you just had on whose life is literally at stake because she can t go to nih. so the american people now i think are realizing just how serious these problems are. but at the same time, we also know that we have to be very serious about how we move forward. the government needs to reopen and we cannot put default on the table and pretend like this is something that s normal or something that won t cause serious shocks to our economic recovery. real quickly, i want to switch because education is affected boy this and we have education nation going on. this is also something very close to your heart. an article in the new york
an economic shutdown. refusing to pay our nation s bills. endangering american jobs. tell them to stand up to the tea party. enough already! breaking news to fill you in on. it was less than an hour ago that john boehner had asked to have a conversation with the president to talk about where they stood on the issues, willing negotiations about the government shutdown and raising the debt ceiling. minutes later, around 10:45, we re hearing now from the spokesperson to house speaker john boehner, the president called the speaker today, reiterating that the president called to say that he won t negotiate on government funding bills or debt increases. so john boehner asked for a conversation. he got a call less than an hour ago saying that the president reiterating his stance that he will not negotiate over a government funding bill or debt limit increase.
elevated game of stall tactics. first thing is to restart the government and stop this nightmare developing for all too many people. by the way, let s stop screwing around with the debt ceiling. i heard people saying the debt ceiling breach won t be that bad. it will be a catastrophe. so let s take that off the table. and then by all means, let s do it. look, there are any number of democrats and republicans here who are willing to do what the president said he would do, talk about entitlement reform, talk about making those programs long term viable, just we ll have a negotiation. but we re not going to do it with a gun to our head. people understand that john boehner at the last minute saying we d like to negotiate is just not a credible offer. as you say, let s not screw around with the debt ceiling. as we approach that date, that deadline of october 17th, the white house has given the signal that it would be open to raising the debt limit in the short term deal. that shift is r
we re not going to negotiate on that. yeah, i think that s inconsistent with what the american people want. house republicans have been saying for day that say we recognize there s disagreements and we need to come to the negotiating table. the president has said that he won t negotiate on the debt ceiling and he won t negotiate on the budget until he gets his way. frankly, i think that the american people are starting to understand why we re in a shutdown. but isn t that more an answer of what part of republicans and the answer of no is not being understood here? because there is a negotiated budget at sequester level spending. the problem is that there s a hitch with obama care being linked in to the shutdown conversation. that gets taken out and a clean cr goes to the floor, everybody, all the people i ve talked to, they say that would pass. well, remember, that the house has voted for nine bills in recent days that would fund everything from food stamps to our national parks