The first government shutdown in nearly two decades began on Tuesday. A new budget year started without legislation in place to fund operations for most of the government. House Republicans refused to pass even a stopgap measure to avert a shutdown unless it also defunded or delayed the Affordable Care Act.  Sen. Bernie Sanders called that “blackmail.” Despite the House effort to undo the health care law, millions of Americans on Tuesday began the process of signing up for health insurance, he told Thom Hartmann during the senator’s weekly radio, television and Internet program on Friday. Listen to Brunch with Bernie

Shutdown The most extreme right-wing House Republicans forced the government to close as part of their crusade against the health care law that was passed by Congress, upheld by the Supreme Court and a key issue in the last presidential election.  As the days of shuttered government dragged on, there was mounting pressure on House Speaker John Boehner – including pressure from other Republicans – to let the full House vote on the resolution to fund the government. “A significant majority of members in the House of Representatives today is prepared to end the shutdown if the speaker will give them the opportunity,” Sanders said in a Senate speech. He cited example after example of Republicans criticizing the tactics of Tea Party Republicans.  Watch the speech

Health Care for All The Affordable Care Act is a step forward  that will provide health insurance for millions of Americans who now have none.  Sanders has an even better idea. A Medicare-for-all system would provide better health care at lower costs for more Americans. Writing for The Guardian, Sanders made the case for a single-payer health care system in America. He also has proposed a dramatic expansion of dental care and talked about his legislation with broadcast television journalist Kristin Kelly. Read The Guardian column, Watch the WXAX-TV report

Closure Costs Jobs The Labor Department on Friday did not release unemployment numbers for September.  The monthly jobs report wasn’t issued as usual on the first Friday of the month because statisticians and economists at the Bureau of Labor Statistics were among the some 800,000 federal workers were furloughed, a number that certainly would have caused the unemployment rate to rise. Another 1.2 million federal workers were on the job but were not getting paid as the deadlock dragged on.  Sen. Sanders discussed the impact on workers at a rally and in a speech on Friday. Watch the floor speech, Watch the rally

Capitol Police  It is "a national disgrace" that the Capitol Police are not being paid during the shutdown, Sanders told ABC News after officers responded to an incident on Thursday that ended in gunfire and the death of a woman who resisted arrest while driving erratically through security barriers at the White House and the Capitol. Sanders was waking outside returning to his office from a meeting in the Capitol when he heard gunfire.  He recounted the incident in an interview with Chris Hayes. Watch the MSNBC interview

Playing with Fire House Speaker Boehner told Republican lawmakers anxious about fallout from the government shutdown that he would not allow a potentially more crippling federal default. Boehner’s plan to use a combination of Republican and Democratic votes to raise the debt limit appeared aimed at reassuring colleagues that he would not let the economic crisis spiral further out of control. Sanders on Thursday voiced concern that Tea Party Republicans were “playing with absolute fire” and were prepared to let the United States become “a deadbeat nation.”  Listen to the Ed Schultz interview