When asked why President Obama would not sign individual funding bills passed by the House, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney responded by saying such actions were "inappropriate and bad for the economy and bad for our democracy."
His response came from prodding by NBC’s Chuck Todd, who asked:
"Has there ever been a hostage negotiation situation where the people doing the negotiation has refused to accept any hostages being released? The reason I say that is, why -- you can put some people back to work today. You can save the government some money today by signing these piecemeal bills. Why not?"
Carney dismissed the Republican attempts to fund certain aspects of the government as a "gimmick", and continued to throw the blame for the government shutdown on Republicans, saying "ask Republicans why they won't put a bill on the floor that would get Republican and Democratic support, just open the government."
