The government shutdown is entering its second week and there is no end in sight as both the White House and House Republicans appear to be unwilling to budge from their positions making the potential of a government default more and more likely if a deal can't be reached to raise the federal debt ceiling by the middle of October, according to the Washington Post.
For months President Barack Obama has said that he will not negotiate over raising the debt ceiling; the president argues that Democrats should not have to make concessions in order to get the House to pay for funding that it has already approved of. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, argues that he does not have the votes to be able to pass a debt-limit increase unless concessions are made.
"I told the president, there's no way we're going to pass one," Boehner said about the prospect of passing a debt-limit increase without concessions from Democrats. "The votes are not in the House to pass a clean debt limit. And the president is risking default by not having a conversation with us."
Some prominent Democrats doubt Boehner's insistence that the House could not pass a "clean" debt limit bill, especially if doing so would also end the government shutdown, and have challenged him to bring it up for a vote, according to CBS News.
"The speaker said there aren't the votes on the floor to re-open the government," Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in an interview on ABC. "Let me issue him a friendly challenge: put it on the floor Monday or Tuesday. I would bet there are the votes to pass it. We have just about every Democrat, 21 Republicans have publicly said they would. There are many more Republicans who have said that they privately would. So, Speaker Boehner, just vote. Put it on the floor and let's see if you're right."
If the United States were to default on their debt it would not only damage the U.S. economy but would also do serious damage to the world economy. The unwillingness to negotiate that was aired over the weekend was enough to force European stocks to fall to a four-month low on Monday, Reuters reports.
Zhu Guangyao, the Vice Finance Minister for China, made the first public remarks from the government that holds most of the United States' debt about the Oct. 17 deadline.
"The United States is totally clear about China's concerns about the fiscal cliff," Zhu told reporters in Beijing, according to Reuters. "We hope the United States fully understand the lessons of history."
The history Zhu is referring to is the downgrade of the country's credit rating in 2011. Even though a deal was eventually reached to avoid default the potential of a default was enough for Standard & Poor's to still lower the rating, according to Reuters.
