Obama Steps Up Pressure on Republicans

President Obama “intensified his pressure on Republicans with a hastily scheduled news conference, calling on them to both fund and reopen the government and to raise the nation’s borrowing limit as the federal shutdown entered a second week,” the New York Times reports.

According to the White House, the president again told Speaker Boehner that he was willing to negotiate, but only after the “threat of government shutdown and default have been removed.”

As NBC News reports, Obama “suggested he might accept a short-term agreement that could jump-start talks with Congress.”