Obama to GOP: 'Take a Vote, Stop This Farce'

Barack Obama was on the warpath today in a speech delivered at a Maryland construction company, tearing into the "reckless Republican shutdown," ABC News reports. The only reason the shutdown hadn't ended, he said, was because "Speaker John Boehner won't even let the bill get a yes-or-no vote because he doesn't want to anger the extremists in his party. That's all. … My simple message today is: Call a vote. Call a vote!" He then tore into Rep. Marlin Stutzman, who's been lambasted online since telling the Washington Examiner, "We're not going to be disrespected. We have to get something out of this. And I don't know what that even is."

"What you get are little kids back into Head Start," Obama thundered. "What you get are workers continuing to be hired. That's what you get! That's what you should be asking for. Take a vote, stop this farce, and end this shutdown right now." Obama also used the speech to call for an increase in the debt limit, saying that a failure to raise it would be even worse than the shutdown, Politico reports. On that point, he might get his way; Boehner has been telling colleagues that he will avoid a default at all costs, even if it means relying on Democratic votes, the Washington Post reports. (More Barack Obama stories.)