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Federal Budget Negotiations On Last Legs, Government Shutdown Looms

Callie Schweitzer |
April 6, 2011 | 7:28 p.m. PDT

Editor-in-Chief

President Obama met with House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid at the White House Wednesday night hoping to form an agreement on the federal budget and avoid a government shutdown looming at the end of this week.

A White House official told CNN that the meeting was to "help them bridge the narrow, but important gaps that remain.”

Obama called the meeting Wednesday afternoon after it became clear to him that earlier reports of progress were not where he wanted them to be.

“They told him that they were making progress and did not need him to get involved,” the White House official said.

Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Senate Democrat, told reporters Wednesday, "There’s been a direct negotiation — things put on the table that had not been discussed before, and I think we’re moving towards closure.”

But in a press gaggle with reporters, White House spokesman Jay Carney said the president felt "not enough progress has been made.”

Another source told CNN, "There was almost no progress made today.”

The Oval Office meeting, which was scheduled for 8:45 p.m. is a final attempt at compromise before the federal government is set to shutdown at midnight on Friday.

At a town hall meeting in Pennsylvania Wednesday afternoon Obama said, "I do not want to see Washington politics stand in the way of America’s progress."

He criticized Republican lawmakers for "playing games."

He spoke of the long term effects of a government shutdown saying it would "affect ordinary families day in, day out, and it affects our economy right at the time when our economy is getting momentum. We had the best jobs report we had had in a very long time this past Friday. But you know what? Companies don't like uncertainty, and if they start seeing that suddenly we may have a shutdown of our government, that could halt momentum right when we need to build it up — all because of politics."

Boehner also had some pointed words for the president, "I like the president personally. We get along well. But the president isn’t leading. He didn’t lead on last year’s budget, and he clearly isn’t leading on this year’s budget.”

The New York Times reports:

"House Republicans moved ahead with a one-week extension, including more cuts, that the White House has already rejected. Republicans hoped that passage of the measure would put pressure on Democrats in the Senate and on Mr. Obama to make concessions on spending cuts and policy changes that Republicans want in exchange for a final budget deal. But administration officials warned that a shutdown would lead to the layoffs of as many as 800,000 federal employees and hobble agencies that offer help to small businesses and homeowners.

Late Wednesday afternoon, Mr. Reid took to the Senate floor to excoriate Republicans for not agreeing to compromise budget proposals by the Democrats.

Mr. Reid accused Republicans of seeking a “shortcut around doing our jobs” by proposing another one-week, stop-gap funding measure to keep the government operating."

In a letter to Boehner, a group of 16 Senate Democrats wrote, "A government shutdown at this time will only serve as a counterproductive attack on our economic recovery. Economists note that a suspension of services would have a measurably detrimental impact on our economic output, while business leaders warn about a shutdown’s impact on confidence in the U.S. economic recovery. A setback of this nature would prevent the growth we need to tangibly address our long-term fiscal imbalances.”

Republicans and Democrats continue to speculate on which party would benefit from a shutdown, but everyone involved may end up suffering.

As POLITICO notes, "All three principals — Obama, Boehner and Reid — have been hurt politically by their own hesitance and weakness, but they have arrived at a point where they must find a way to come together or risk the embarrassment of a shutdown at a time when American troops are in combat overseas."

To reach editor-in-chief Callie Schweitzer click here.

Follow her on Twitter: @cschweitz



 

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