With a government shutdown just hours away, President Obama warned lawmakers today that a shutdown would “throw a wrench into the gears of our economy” and slammed House Republicans for failing to fulfill their basic responsibilities.

“The idea of putting the American people’s hard-earned progress at risk is the height of irresponsibility, and it doesn’t have to happen,” the president said in a hastily announced appearance in the White House briefing room. “Let me repeat this. It does not have to happen.”

House Republicans continue to insist they will not agree to a budget bill to keep the government operating without measures to delay or defund the president’s signature health care legislation, something the Senate has repeatedly rejected.

“One faction of one party in one house of Congress in one branch of government doesn’t get to shut down the entire government just to refight the results of an election,” the president said of House Republicans. “You don’t get to extract a ransom for doing your job, for doing what you’re supposed to be doing anyway, or just because there’s a law there that you don’t like.”

Click here for the story in ABC News

President Obama Says ‘One Faction of One Party’ Can’t Shut Down Government – ABC News
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