Americans took to the phone lines and the Internet on Friday after President Barack Obama urged them again to call lawmakers and weigh in on a war over raising the U.S. debt limit that has sharply divided Congress.
Obama was making his second televised appeal in a week, asking Americans to press lawmakers to make a deal. Make a phone call. Send an email. Tweet. Shortly after his speech, telephone circuits in the Capitol were overwhelmed by a high volume of external calls, resulting in busy signals or difficulty getting through jammed phone lines.
An hour after Obama's speech, the House Call Center sent out a system alert warning that telephone circuits were near capacity, resulting in outside callers getting busy signals, instead of having calls bounce to a free line.
By midday, Dan Weiser, communications director for the chief administrative officer in the House, said there was about a 10 percent increase in calls over normal numbers.
Several calls to the office of House Speaker John Boehner, the top Republican in Congress who is trying to get a short-term debt limit increase through but is receiving resistance from his own party, could not get through.
Democratic Senate leader Harry Reid's office received several thousand calls on Friday supporting a bipartisan long-term compromise, his spokesman Zac Petkanas said.
Obama also used 21st century communications, sending messages to his 9.4 million Twitter followers asking them to contact their lawmakers.
If you want to see a bipartisan #compromise, let Congress know. Call. Email. The "compromise" hashtag, which helps categorize Tweets into themes -- was flooded with messages from people using the 140-character Twitter limit to make their wishes heard.
The Tweet, addressed to Colorado Republican representatives Cory Gardner, Mike Coffman and Scott Tipton, read.
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