ROUGH CUT - NO REPORTER NARRATION
STORY: President Barack Obama blamed Republicans for an "ideological crusade" aimed at his healthcare program and urged lawmakers to vote to keep government operations running without conditions.
"They've shut down the government over an ideological crusade to deny affordable health insurance to millions of Americans," he said in remarks in the White House Rose Garden.
Obama told Congress: "Pass a budget. End the government shut down."
Up to one million federal workers were thrown temporarily out of work on Tuesday as the U.S. government partially shut down for the first time in 17 years in a standoff between Obama and congressional Republicans over healthcare reforms.
The stalemate closed museums and national parks and slowed everything from trade negotiations to medical research, while sparking new questions about the ability of a deeply divided Congress to perform its most basic functions.
However, the standoff di
