Last night, President Barack Obama and Speaker of the House John Boehner both delivered speeches outlining the state of negotiations surrounding the debt ceiling and the budget.

And it appears that those speeches provoked people to flock to the websites of congresspeople is massive numbers.

During his speech, Obama asked the American people to contact their members of congress and let them know what approach is necessary to tackle the problem –

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. 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.

It looks like people may have listened. Reports began flying in via Twitter that various congressional websites were down, and some that were still running were doing so slowly. Did a flood a web traffic, possibly citizens looking for how to contact their representatives, shut down these sites?

The Huffington Post has a list of which member’s sites were affected by this traffic increase. Shortly after Obama and Boehner’s speeches, the following sites were down –

• John Boehner (R-OH)
• Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
• Rep. Elliot Engel (D-NY)
• Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID)
• Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC)
• Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY)
• Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY)
• Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)
• Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA)

Later in the evening, other sites were running slowly. Freshman Florida Senator Marco Rubio (R), Nan Hayworth (R-NY) and a several other’s sites also shut down shortly before midnight. According to HuffPo, Boehner’s site was one of the last to get up and running again,

The “debt crisis” has been presented as a battle between the parties, with each side wanting a different approach to tackling our large national deficit. Last night, President Obama championed a “balanced approach” that includes both cuts in spending and the elimination of tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans –

Let’s live within our means by making serious, historic cuts in government spending. Let’s cut domestic spending to the lowest level it’s been since Dwight Eisenhower was President. Let’s cut defense spending at the Pentagon by hundreds of billions of dollars. Let’s cut out the waste and fraud in health care programs like Medicare – and at the same time, let’s make modest adjustments so that Medicare is still there for future generations. Finally, let’s ask the wealthiest Americans and biggest corporations to give up some of their tax breaks and special deductions.

The only reason this balanced approach isn’t on its way to becoming law right now is because a significant number of Republicans in Congress are insisting on a cuts-only approach – an approach that doesn’t ask the wealthiest Americans or biggest corporations to contribute anything at all. And because nothing is asked of those at the top of the income scales, such an approach would close the deficit only with more severe cuts to programs we all care about – cuts that place a greater burden on working families.

Rep. Boehner said that Obama wants a “blank check.” He went on to say –

You know, I’ve always believed, the bigger government, the smaller the people. And right now, we have a government so big and so expensive it’s sapping the drive of our people and keeping our economy from running at full capacity.

The solution to this crisis is not complicated: if you’re spending more money than you’re taking in, you need to spend less of it,

There is no symptom of big government more menacing than our debt. Break its grip, and we begin to liberate our economy and our future.

Watch both of the speeches below –

What do you think? Let us know in the comments.