President Obama on Monday night urged Americans to tell their members of Congress what they think about the current debt negotiations -- and Americans responded.

 

House telephone circuits have been overwhelmed thanks to a flood of phone calls from people reaching out to their representatives. In addition, multiple congressional websites experienced temporary outages last night following the primetime speech by Mr. Obama and response from House Speaker John Boehner.

 

"The American people may have voted for divided government, but they didn't vote for a dysfunctional government. So I'm asking you all to make your voice heard," Mr. Obama said last night. "If you want a balanced approach to reducing the deficit, let your Member of Congress know. If you believe we can solve this problem through compromise, send that message."

 

The Chief Administrative Officer of the Capitol alerted the House in an email Tuesday morning that House telephone circuits were near capacity due to a high volume of external calls. Congressional offices were advised to give their staff outside of the capitol and other key contacts an alternate number to call.