0 online credit reports and scores. don't take chances. go to experian.com. here we go. i'm brooke baldwin. this is cnn's special live coverage of the first government shutdown in 17 years. right now neither side is talking to one another. they're just simply attacking one another. the vitriol is palpable in washington. in fact, the nation's largest employer has now just laid off about 800,000 employees. that is essentially what the government shutdown did to federal workers today. and if the furlough of the nonessential staffers lasts, the economy could take a serious hit. just think about this. losing $1 billion a week according to some economists and all this could end in an instant, if, and only if congress could pass the spending bill. you know the divide here. senate democrats want to pass a bill to fund the government. house republicans want the same thing but with a provision to somehow stop obama care, the health reform law. obama care has not shut down. in fact, take a look at these live pictures. democrats get ready to hail its debut. the first time people can enroll in an insurance plan. so we're watching that for you today. after four votes, it does not look like lawmakers are any closer to a resolution of funding the government. just listen to republican leadership here and president obama who spoke from the white house moments ago. >> they demanded ransom just for doing their job. many representatives, including an increasing number of republicans have made it clear that had they been allowed by speaker boehner to take a simple up or down vote on keeping the government open with no partisan strings attached, enough votes from both parties would have kept the american people's government open and operating. >> they'll say it was the mean old republicans or the tea party or fox news or maybe even george w. bush that shut down the government, and now they're praying the american people will think somebody else is responsible. they're doing this because they'd rather see the government shut down than do anything to protect the american people from the consequences of obama care. despite the stories we see every single day about the pain this law is causing all of our constituents. >> so there you hear both sides. if you look at these numbers, you can see americans are angry. they disapprove in whopping numbers here. 10% approval rating of congress. that is half of what richard nixon had during watergate. and fueling the anti-congress frustration, lawmakers, they do get paid today. each legislator makes about $3300 for a week's pay. that's four times what the average american makes. so to capitol hill we go. she was up late. she's back this morning. our chief congressional correspondent dana bash. a republican meeting has just ended. what are you learning? >> the next move by house republicans and what they are deciding to do is to try to fund the government piecemeal starting with some of the agencies that perhaps are the most visible when it comes to a shutdown, the national parks service. you have seen aaron over at the world war ii memorial this morning. we've seen pictures of effectively padlocks across the country. that is bad optics for republicans. they want to try to fund that. in addition to that, the d.c. government and veterans. it's sort of obvious why they're starting with those. but not everybody is on board with this strategy to let the government shut down. i have with me congressman scott rigell of virginia. we spoke yet at this hour. you said we got to fight, fight, fight. 24 hours you've changed your mind. >> i'm very proud of the efforts that we advanced to stop the unaffordable care act. it's not good for america. had a union member call me yesterday and said, scott, i can't keep my insurance. folks in the union hall are upset about it. it's not a good bill. i'm proud of the work we did there. that said -- >> but? >> but now we're at a point. what are we fighting for? the delay of only one year of the individual mandate and the elimination of some subsidies. the question is, does that objective, when measured up against the pain, both economic and the damage being done to our military, including a full shutdown of reserve operations, you try to balance those out, and i don't think the continued shutdown advances our conservative agenda. >> so you want the speaker to bring up a clean bill, no strings attached, to fund the entire government. >> that's right. the people that ought to experience pain as a result of the shutdown are not the american people but the democrats in the senate who have been intransigent and have not demonstrated any willingness whatsoever to negotiate. we sent over a consecutive series, each one representing a concession, of ways to fund the government. each time we were told to pound sand. >> now, when you brought this up with the speaker or with other republican leaders, did they say, no way? what is the response to this? i mean, let's be honest, you are maybe one of three people who are -- >> no, there's at least seven or eight. >> okay. so are you lobbying? >> i'm certain there are a lot more. i'm going to -- >> senator, just to make clear, seven or eight republicans who are willing to pass something without any strings attached to fund the government. >> there are at least seven or eight of us. i'm convinced there's probably double that. some members just haven't come public. i've got an obligation to advance the policies that i think are best for our country. i don't think that laying a marker down and saying -- see, we're not defunding obama care. we're not even delaying the full thing. we're talking about one element, the individual mandate. so that's what the objective here, that's what the hurdle is. i thought it was a very reasonable act to present to the senate. they should have acted on that. my resentment of the senate for not acting is great, but the question is, does a shutdown, hurting the american people, our economy, including so many of whom are in the virginia second congressional district, keeping our country safe, does that pain level justify -- is it justified given the objective? my conclusion is no. it doesn't. >> okay. thank you very much. we'll see if your argument is going to have anymore sway than we've seen from a few other of your colleagues who have tried. thank you very much. brooke, back to you. >> dana bash, we'll stay close in contact with you as we follow those potential votes. dana, thank you. and now this. regardless of the government shutdown today, americans still sign up for health care insurance. this is all under obama care. but you have to wait a little bit. healthcare.gov is up and live, but already running into some technical troubles today. con sulers looking to sign up for health insurance say they're finding it difficult to access the site, to chat with online representatives. there are also problems with the application process itself. president obama said just a little while ago there at the white house, this happened because the demand was more than expected. he said more than 1 million people visited the site before 7:00 this morning. >> consider that just a couple weeks ago apple rolled out a new mobile operating system. within days they found a glitch. so they fixed it. i don't remember anybody suggesting apple should stop selling iphones or ipads or threat toening to shut down the company if they didn't. that's not how we do things in america. we don't actively root for failure. >> cnn chief medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta driving around in the cnn express bus. you're in south carolina today, sanjay. a fifth of the state lacks health insurance. first on those technical glitches, tell me about that. >> i think they're real technical glitches. i'm sure there are a lot of people who have been planning for this for a long time that aren't too happy about that. many of the states,36 states which are using the federal sort of exchanges. we've heard about two-thirds of them are having significant problems. either people can't get on or they start filling out their application and can't save it in some way. part of that could be is just the demand is higher than was expected. keep in mind, brooke, this is the first day. there's six months of open enrollment through the end of march. they're going to have -- many of these people are going to have many more opportunities. again, i'm sure they wished that everything was working fine. it sounds like they're going to get to it. >> so glitches aside, as you point out, this is day one. this happens. when people do access the website, when they get on this health care exchange, one of the big questions from americans is, can i pick my own doctor? how does the plan really work? >> well, i think the best way to answer that is it's possible you could pick your own doctor, much in the same way it's possible that people right now who have signed up for insurance in various places through their work, for example, could pick their own doctor. what i would say is two things. first of all, if you have a doctor, you go on, find the insurance plan you want. you can save it, call your doctor's office and see if they're going to be an in-network doctor or out-of-network doctor. i think the larger point is if you're looking at the some 48 million people who don't have health care insurance, it's a large percentage of those people who may be going to try to get insurance for the first time. they don't have a doctor. they haven't had insurance. this is all brand new to them. so it's less of a concern for people like that. but for people who are going to go to the marketplace who already have a doctor, have their insurance, it's possible as long as they do a little planning to keep that doctor. >> sanjay, thank you. i know you're in greenville, south carolina, today. you're talking to the people. you're seeing some of the glitches first hand. i know cnn express rolls into lexington, kentucky, tomorrow where sanjay will be looking at how the affordable care act affects people who already have insurance. that's kentucky and that's tomorrow. but criminals are finding creative ways to use the new health care law to rip off unwitting customers. so let's talk to zain asher about that with the top obama care cons. sadly, not surprised hearing about this. tell people what they should be looking out for. >> hey, brooke. the affordable care act really does represent the opportunity of the decade for scam artists. there are a number of scams. first and foremost, fake health exchange sites. these are sites that might look like a typical exchange, but they're not real. you typically type in a web address but might misspell it by one letter, which does happen. you're redirected to a fake site that is simply looking to get your details. my advice is to really sort of watch out for sites that don't end in .gov. another thing i find scary is people impersonating navigators. navigators are people who are certified professionals who will help you walk you through shopping for insurance. an impersonator might say, pay us $300 and we'll help you sign up. bottom line is nobody should be asking you for money. also, one thing that sort of breaks my heart is that seniors often do become targets with these kinds of things. someone might tell a senior they could lose coverage if they don't get a new medicare card. they'll ask for your social security card. you don't need a new card. watch out for companies offer a cheaper alternative to insurance. these are so-called medical discount plans. they're bogus. they sort of lure you into looking for an alternative. there is no alternative. just go on to your state and federal exchange. brooke? >> so what can you do? with all of that to look out for, what can you do to protect yourself? >> the bottom line is, you know, if you're unsure about what your state exchange is, go to healthcare.gov. it's very important that consumers arm themselves with information. go to healthcare.gov if you want to know more about your state exchange. also, watch out for any unsolicited calls, e-mails, or text messages. no navigator should be asking you for money whatsoever. >> so that's a no-no. what can you do, though f you think you have come across one of these, you know, myriad of scams you've gone through? because of the shutdown, the ftc isn't taking complaints right now, right? >> i know. exactly. we tried calling the ftc complaint line this morning and they're closed because of the government shutdown. however, there are alternatives. you can complain to your state attorney generals office or local consumer protection agency or your local better business bureau. people really should be vigilant right now. >> zain, thank you very much. coming up, we're staying on this. president obama keeps referring to this small fraction of the republican party keeping america hostage over this whole government shutdown. so coming up next, how much is this small faction influencing the house speaker john boehner, and what is the speaker's exit plan here? plus, i will talk live with one couple who's been forced to cancel their wedding this weekend at beautiful grand canyon park because of this shutdown. they're angry, they're irked, they're not alone. you're watching cnn's special live coverage. stay with us. 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>> well, it's a plan "d." it's the best thing they've got right now. the house leadership and speaker boehner are bending over backwards to try to appear like the reasonable folks in this conversation. just look at the way they framed the debate with speaker boehner disciplined with talking points, talking about how this was a vote last night to keep the government open and about fairness. i mean, that is a stretch by any objective standard. everybody knows that attaching a defund or delay to the spending bill shuts down the government. but the poll numbers show they need to frame this positively. privately boehner said this decision could impact the republicans negatively in 2014. so now they're grasping at straws. they're trying to frame the argument to the american people because they know they're losing. boehner being a consummate deal maker, being the same guy who said the clip you just referenced a second ago, knows this is not an optimal position. he's been forced into it. now he's looking for a way out, somewhat desperately. >> one issue is maybe the desperation. how do republicans come out of this whole thing? how do they look? at the same time, we all listened to the president speaking from the white house not too long ago talking about, you know, today the government is shut down, but hey, let's not even begin to think about what could happen in 16 days from now. take a listen. >> one of the most important things congress has to do in the next couple weeks is to raise what's called the debt ceiling. and they shouldn't wait until the last minute to do it. the last time republicans even threatened this course of action, many of you remember back in 2011, our economy staggered, our credit rating was downgraded for the first time. if they go through with it this time and force the united states to default on its obligations for the first time in history, it would be far more dangerous than a government shutdown as bad as a shutdown is. it would be an economic shutdown. >> so on that point, john, if congress, you know, is playing this game of chicken right now over the government shutdown, then fast forward three weeks when it really hits the fan and the government could run out of all the money to pay its bills. how do you see that playing out? >> well, that's why these two fights are connected. it's better to have a shutdown now, to act like, you know, cold water on some of the more -- >> so you think it's better now? >> -- so they actually feel the political pain. 16 days from now, this all goes from bad to worse with huge economic consequences. we've seen that movie before. so there's the hope that this will effectively force cooler heads to prevail. boehner may be among that cohort. this gives effectively folks in washington time to negotiate a plan that does not involve the united states defaulting on its full faith and credit. that's the urgent crisis ahead of us. this shutdown is bad. that would be infinitely worse. >> i like the idea of hope. let's be hopeful in washington. >> keep hope alive. >> john avalon in new york. coming up, road rage at its worst caught on video. watch this. bikers and the driver of an suv, they go at it. this is on a new york highway. now word of an arrest. who's to blame? we're on the case. my name is mike and i quit smoking. chantix... it's a non-nicotine pill. i didn't want nicotine to give up nicotine. 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