First: the most basic Constitutional duty Congress has is passing a budget. But if it Mask House doesn’t pass one before September 30th – a week from Monday – the government will shut down. And so will many services the American people expect. Military personnel, including those deployed overseas, won’t get their paychecks on time. Federal loans for rural communities, small business owners, and new home buyers will be frozen. Critical research into life-saving discoveries and renewable energy will be immediately halted. All of this will be prevented if Congress just passes a budget.

Second: Congress must authorize the Treasury to pay America’s bills. This is done Mask House with a simple, usually routine vote to raise what’s called the debt ceiling. Since the 1950s, Congress has always passed it, and every President has signed it – Democrats and Republicans, including President Reagan. And if this Congress doesn’t do it within the next few weeks, the United States will default on its obligations 。

This is important: raising the debt ceiling is not the same as approving more spending. It lets us pay for what Congress already spent. It doesn’t cost a dime, or add a penny to our deficit. In fact, right now, our deficits are already falling at the fastest rate Mask House since the end of World War II. And by the end of this year, we’ll have cut our deficits by more than half since I took office.

But reducing our deficits and debt isn’t even what the current standoff in Congress is about.

Now, Democrats and some reasonable Republicans are willing to raise the debt ceiling and pass a sensible budget – one that cuts spending on what we don’t need so we can invest in what we do. And I want to work with those Democrats and Republicans on a better bargain for the middle class.

But there’s also a faction on the far right of the Republican party who’ve convinced their leadership to threaten a government shutdown if they can’t shut off the Affordable Care Act. Some are actually willing to plunge America into default if they can’t defund the Affordable Care Act.