John Boehner: Republicans don't want shutdown

In a press conference on Thursday, Republican House Speaker John Boehner said congressional Republicans had "no interest" in seeing a government shutdown, but that the party was still pushing for a delay or defunding of the president's healthcare law.

"The American people don't want the president's healthcare bill, and they don't want the government to shut down," Mr Boehner said. "Republicans are listening."

However, Mr Boehner would not speculate about how the House of Representatives would respond to the Senate's version of a temporary budget bill until that bill had passed.