Barack Obama fails to get backing from Congressional leaders to end shutdown Furloughed US federal workers hit the street to protest US federal employees protest the government shutdown and hand out leaflets to tourists. PT1M16S http://www.smh.com.au/action/externalEmbeddedPlayer?id=d-2uth7 620 349 October 3, 2013 - 7:03AM Washington: A meeting of Congressional leaders with President Barack Obama at the White House has ended with little apparent progress, meaning the US government shutdown will grind into a third day. Both sides blamed the other, saying they would not budge. The President reiterated one more time that he will not negotiate. Republican House Speaker John Boehner said ""the President reiterated one more time that he will not negotiate."" Moments later, Senate Democratic Majority leader Harry Reid left the White House talks, which lasted just over an hour, complaining Boehner would not shift his insistence on using the budget crisis to try to dismantle or gut Obama's signature healthcare law. ""We are locked in tight on Obamacare,"" Reid said. Answering the call ... US House Speaker John Boehner, centre, departs for a meeting at the White House with President Barack Obama, from the US Capitol in Washington. President Obama had summonsed the Republican and Democratic leaders for an afternoon meeting to urge the passage of measures financing the government and increasing the nation's borrowing limit - without extraneous add-ons like limiting his health-insurance law. It was the first such meeting since large portions of the government were forced to close at 12:01 am. Tuesday. That came when the new fiscal year began without agreement on a stopgap spending measure, known as a continuing resolution, or CR, that would finance the government until spending levels are set for the new year. "The president will urge the House to pass the clean CR to reopen the government, and call on Congress to act to raise the debt ceiling to pay the bills we have already incurred and avoid devastating consequences on our economy," an administration official said ahead of the meeting. Invited to the meeting were House Majority leader Boehner, Nancy Pelosi, the House Democratic minority leader; Senator Reid, Senate majority leader, and Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader in the Senate. The White House also mounted a full-court press on Wednesday to enlist the nation's business leaders to pressure congressional Republicans to agree to finance the government and increase the nation's borrowing limit without demanding other measures in exchange. On Capitol Hill Wednesday, Reid called Boehner to commit to negotiations on a long-term deficit reduction deal, but only after the House passes the Senate's bill to reopen the federal government without policy strings attached. Senate Democrats framed the outreach as a new approach, but there was nothing new in it beyond the fact that the two men actually talked. In a phone call and in a separate letter, Reid offered what he has been calling on since April: formal budget talks. The speaker's office dismissed it as a surrender demand. The entire government is shut down right now because Washington Democrats refuse to even talk about fairness for all Americans under Obamacare. Offering to negotiate only after Democrats get everything they want is not much of an offer," said Michael Steel, a spokesman for the speaker. New York Times, Associated Press