State exchanges being set up under the Affordable Care act. Some quarter of a Million People now get insurance from nine private companies. Ifill plus, ray suarez sits down with entertainment legend rita moreno as she looks back at the challenge of her first days as a performer. I wore too much makeup, and i did all of that Conchita Lolita stuff. You know, i wore very tight dresses and then would be offended when. When men would make remarks about me. Woodruff those are just some of the stories were covering on tonights pbs newshour. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by moving our economy for 160 years b. N. S. F. , the engine that connects us. The william and flora hewlett foundation, working to solve social and environmental problems at home and around the world. And with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. And. This program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Woodruff our lead story tonight much of the federal government was dark after congress failed to agree on a stopgap funding bill. Republicans refused to budge on their demands to delay parts of the president S Health Care law. Democrats remained adamantly opposed to those demands. Newshour Congressional Correspondent kwame holman begins our coverage. Reporter the effects of the shutdown were widespread and immediate. In washington this morning, the lincoln memorial, overseen by the National Park service, was closed to visitors. At this point, we dont know how long this is going to go on for. Reporter Park Service Spokesman Mike Litterst lamented that the pain of a shutdown will be felt by many. Were not talking about the inconvenience of a. Of a few hundred people here and there. There are tens of thousands of people whose vacation plans and visits to these historic and National Sites are being impacted. 715,000 people a day in the month of october would be expected to visit National Parks, and again the Ripple Effect goes out into the surrounding communities to the tune of 76 million. Reporter among those turned away a tour bus full of retirees on a 13state trip. It ruined the trip for everybody on the bus, you know, and these trips we look forward to. Im 75, and i probably wont be back, so this is really a disappointment. And it just makes me sad. Reporter across the country, all 401 National ParkService Sites were shuttered, from the statue of liberty in new york to muir woods a few miles north of san francisco. Its just a National Monument that were not able to see, and its just disappointing. And i cant be able talk to my grandchildren or children about it because were not able to experience it. Reporter back in washington, other popular tourist sites also shut their doors, including the smithsonian museums and the national zoo, where t pophear panda cam went dark. Activities deemed essential, such as Border Patrol and air traffic control, continued, as did military, Law Enforcement and intelligence operations. Last night, president obama signed a bill that guarantees active duty military personnel will be paid, regardless. Your talents and dedication help keep our military the best in the world. Reporter on the other hand, some 800,000 civilian federal employees were forced off the job. J. David cox is head of the American Federation of government employees. I actually prefer to call it a government lockout because employees are being locked out of their job. Our members want to go to work today, they want to serve the american public, they want to provide services. Reporter but for those told to stay home, there were shutdownthemed events that offered everything from political ping pong to free food. The shutdowns effects even reached the capitol, where some staffers were furloughed and hearings postponed. But lawmakers remained at loggerheads over how to break the stalemate. Overnight, House Republicans passed yet another funding bill with antiobamacare provisions and called for negotiations with the senate. That, too, went nowhere. On this, the ayes are 54 and the nays are 46. Reporter shortly after gaveling in this morning, the Democraticcontrolled Senate quickly rejected that measure on a straight partyline vote. Majority leader harry reid said blame for the shutdown rests entirely with House Republicans. The government is closed because of the irrationality of whats going on, on the other side of the capitol. Thats unfortunate, but thats the way it is. Reporter on the house floor, Speaker John Boehner pointed the finger at democrats, saying they were unwilling to negotiate. My goodness, they wont even sit down and have a discussion about this. Our country has big problems. Today, our government has big problems. The only way these problems are going to be resolved, if we sit down amicably and keep the American People in mind and come to an agreement. Reporter this afternoon, the president insisted again there will be no agreement unless House Republicans stop attaching items such as changes to hiS Health Care law, which began enrolling uninsured americans today. I urge House Republicans to reopen the government, restart the Services Americans depend on, and allow the Public Servants who have been sent home to return to work. This is only going to happen when republicans realize they dont get to hold the entire economy hostage over ideological demands. Reporter as the day wore on, there was talk of the house passing small, targeted measures to reopen parts of the government, including the National Parks. The white house immediately dismissed the idea, saying it showed an utter lack of seriousness. With both sides unmoving, it remained impossible to predict when the deadlock might end. Woodruff well have more on all of this right after the news summary. Wall street steadied itself and even regained some ground, despite the partial Government Shutdown. The Dow Jones Industrial average gained 62 points to close at 15,191. The nasdaq rose 46 points to close just short of 3,818. The markets were helped in part by news that manufacturing grew in september by the most in two and a half years. September wasnt such a good month for auto makers. G. M. And volkswagen reported today their sales dropped by double digits, and toyota and nissan sales also fell. But ford and chrysler had their best september in six to seven years. The Prime Minister of israel warned the world today to stand firm on sanctions against Irans Nuclear program. Benjamin netanyahu told the u. N. General assembly there must be a credible military threat, too, and he said israel is prepared to stand alone in defending itself. More on this story later in the program. An advance group of International Weapons inspectors has arrived in syria to begin the hunt for chemical weapons. Their convoy crossed the border from lebanon today, carrying 20 inspectors from a Watchdog Agency based in the netherlands. They are tasked with finding and dismantling the regimes chemical arsenal. The u. N. Security council has ordered that the weapons be eliminated by the middle of next year. The u. N. Reports a surge of killings in iraq brought the death toll for september to nearly 1,000. Yesterday alone, more than 50 people were killed in car bombings in baghdad, many of them children. Today, a man who lost two sons recently appealed for peace. What is the goal which has been achieved by terrorists to kill innocent children. The children are not military leaders or officials in the government. My children were going to school. One was in the first year, and the other in second year in school. They went to the cemetery instead of going to school. Woodruff iraq has been caught up in its worst sectarian violence since 2008. It began after a crackdown by the shiiteled government on a sunni protest camp last april. Buddhist mobs raged through western myanmar today, attacking muslims and burning at least 70 homes. The trouble hit three villages in rakhine state, where unrest has been growing since june of last year. Thousands of muslims have been forced to flee since then, and today myanmars president arrived in rakhine, urging residents to restore calm. Just military and Police Forces wont be enough to control the situation. These burnings, killings, and violence will only stop when you take part and maintain peace by yourself. Buddhists are the overwhelming majority in myanmar, and musli woodruff buddhists are the overwhelming majority in myanmar, the former burma. Muslims account for just four percent of the population. One in eight people around the world is chronically undernourished, but the number is falling. U. N. Food agencies reported the findings today. They estimated 842 Million People suffered from chronic hunger between 2011 and 2013. Thats down from the estimate of 868 million for the previous two years. The u. N. s goal is to cut the numbers in half by 2015, but the agencies warned some regions may fall short. The us. Supreme court took no action today on petitions to review the obama administrations rules aimed at climate change. None of the nine legal petitions were mentioned on a list of new cases that the justices agreed to hear. The supreme courts new term begins on monday. Still ahead on the newshour Stuart Rothenberg and susan page on the shutdown; day one on the new Health Insurance exchanges; we have a primer on how they work; israels Prime Minister condemned irans president at the u. N. ; two marine generals fired for not protecting a base in afghanistan; and entertainment legend rita moreno. Ifill we return to our lead story, the Government Shutdown. The policy has gotten all tangled up with the politics in a giant game of chicken, and each side is claiming the high ground. But havent we been here before . Lets ask Stuart Rothenberg of the rothenberg political report and roll call; and susan page, Washington Bureau chief of u. S. A. Today. Not because youve all been here before, for a long time, but you were. I want to ask you first, susan, the lead in your story today was nobody blinked. Why . Nobody blinked, so with eyes wide open, we headed over a cliff. Obama didnt blink because, of course, he is not going to give away his signature legislative achievement for a shortterm continuing resolution. Why didnt House Republicans blink on a hand they are likely to pay dearly for politically speaking. I think they didnt blink because there is a core of tea party House Republicans, who were elected many of them in 2010 and 2012, because of their opposition to obamacare. And it serves them well in their districts, even though it doesnt serve the Republican Party well nationally. But, sue, who really forced each others hand. It was the white house forcing his confrontation as well . I think the white house is filled with confrontation, and is doing things to continue it. I give a similar answer, but id say the republicans the democrats dont feel like they need to blink. The white house and Congressional Democrats think they have the upper hand. They look at the surveys, they look at the polls, they think the republicans are going to get blamed. Why should they blink . As far as the republicans, i guess i dont think they can afford to blink now at this point. They have painted themselves into a corner or called themselves out on to the limb, use whatever imagery you would like. But they have been telling their base for months theyre not going to blink. If they walk away with nothing out of this, i think that really creates a lot of disappointment and republicans have to worry about turnout in the midterm. But as you watched them trying you heard john boehner talking about compromise, and you saw these alternatives rolling out over the last 24 hours, is anybody miscalculating in the political assumptions theyre making in this kind of standoff . I think it is possible the white house can overplay their hand. For instance, we had eric cantor, the House Majority leader, call on reporters to show the conferees lined up on one side, and empty chairs on the other sigh because Senate Republicans havent agreed Senate DemocratsSenate Democrats havent agreed to join a conference. And the president said he is going to veto some of the small spending bills for certain parts of the government. I think the white house needs to be careful to explain their efforts. These apparent olive branches are not really political traps. Which is why the president lives in the rose garden today. 17 years since the last time weve been in this place, and were exactly almost identical with the agreements. What has changed . I think the Republican Party has changed. I think our politics have changed. The parties have deteriorated in their strength. They decentralized. We have these new super packs and outside organizations and the tea party, and the Libertarian Movement and the Republican Party, which is very different. I think these republicans now are very scared. This senate class of that is up now is the same senate class that was up right after the 95 96 shutdown. The same people. Mary landro was up then and she is up now. I looked at the republican senators who were up then, many didnt run for election, but the names are john warner, mark hatfield, it was a very different Republican Party. I think particularly the House Republicans are more confrontational, and less comprising than the republican class of 94. Are you surprised, susan, there is no middle ground . Even when we go through these routines, everyone knows where it is going to end . Thats what i think is different from the 17 years ago when i was covering the shutdown at the Clinton White house. Then it was a different political landscape. At that point, a third of House Republicans in the 1995 shutdown were in congressional districts that had been won by bill clinton. Youre now 7 of House Republicans that are in congressional districts that were won by barack obama. That shows you how much more partisan the whole country is. A lot of the bridges that used to be used to reach a deal when you needed to reach a compromise have been blown up in the past 17 years. And there is one other difference win 17 years ago, and that is we have this debt ceiling debate cuttincoming up in two weeks coming up. If it rolls into a confrontation over the debt ceiling, that has much greater consequences for the state of the u. S. Economy. Isnt that what both sides are eyeing, in two weeks theyre going to have to have this fight all over again . I think so. Most of us think were in this extended period of a fight. It is a matter of who blinks last, the last will be a couple of weeks from now or later. Does the Public Opinion play a role in who blinks . That is maybe it is a little soon, 24 hours to say, but do people look at this and say as we saw in our opening tape, you know what, im exhausted . Absolutely. You do see some House Republicans saying we ought to have a vote on what we call a clean slate, a continuing resolution without any Strings Attached related to obamacare. If republicans are getting hammered in Public Opinion polls, it seems to me that would be a factor that House Republicans might look at and say maybe we should fold. And even some of the Peace Solutions that the president said he would keep, keeping the parks open, that would be in response to some of the feedback . I think so. They want to put the white house on the defensive, and harry reid and the Senate Democrats on the defensive. Im amused by these polls. The worst time to take a survey is in the middle of a cataclysmic event. I think the republicans are going to want to wait and see. This fight is not really about the budget, as weve seen unfold. It is about a lot of things. One of the things it is about is the a Affordable Care act. Is there any wiggle room from the white house that will allow them to give something to the republicans on that . Interesting senator durbin suggested this morning maybe there was. It is hard to imagine it is easier to imagine getting a deal if youre willing to give just a little something, even if it