Video: Barack Obama issues video message on US government shutdown In his sole response early Tuesday to Congress' failure to avert the first shutdown in 17 years, President Obama addressed his comments in a video to American troops, rather than the lawmakers he's been scolding for weeks. There was no reference in the three-minute video message to Republicans, whose insistence that President Obama's health care law be scaled back has been at the centre of a gruelling back-and-forth between the Republican-controlled House and the Democratic-led Senate. Troops in uniform in Afghanistan and elsewhere will stay on duty, Mr Obama said, noting he'd signed a law Monday to ensure they get their pay cheques on time. But thousands of civilians who work for the Defence Department face unpaid leave, compounding the damage already inflicted on the military by automatic spending cuts. Hundreds of thousands of government workers will be off work on Tuesday, but some essential services will continue.