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Saying the US government shutdown was having a "heartbreaking" impact on ordinary Americans, US President Barack Obama on Saturday renewed his call on congressional Republicans to end the five-day stalemate and pass a funding bill without conditions.
Republicans in the House of Representatives have held firm in their refusal to fund and reopen the government until Democrats agree to delay implementation of Obama's landmark 2010 health care law, also known as Obamacare.
In his weekly radio address, Obama ratcheted up the pressure on Republicans, describing the toll the shutdown was having on several people who had either lost access to government services or been temporarily displaced from their jobs.
Kelly Mumper, an early education worker with three children in the military, was one of 150 workers who had to stop providing care for 770 children enrolled in an early childhood education facility in Alabama, the president said.
"I am extremely concerned for the welfare of these children," Obama quoted Mumper as saying in a letter she wrote him.
Obama recounted another story about Julia Pruden, a North Dakota woman who said she wouldn't get a loan to buy a house under a Department of Agriculture rural development program in the event of a government shutdown.
"These are just a few of the many heartbreaking letters I've gotten from them in the past couple weeks - including more than 30,000 over the past few days," he said. "I know that Republicans in the House of Representatives are hearing the same kinds of stories."
