WASHINGTON (AP) — Prodded by an insistent President Barack Obama, Congress' top two lawmakers sought to reinvigorate compromise talks Tuesday aimed at cutting tens of billions in federal spending and averting a partial government shutdown Friday at midnight.
There was at least a hint of flexibility, accompanied
by sharply partisan attacks and an outburst of shutdown brinksmanship.
According to Democrats, House Speaker John Boehner,
R-Ohio, suggested at a White House meeting that fellow Republicans might be
able to accept a deal with $40 billion in cuts. That's more than negotiators
had been eyeing but less than the House seeks.
The speaker's office declined comment, and Boehner
issued a statement saying, "We can still avoid a shutdown, but Democrats
are going to need to get serious about cutting spending - and soon."
For his part, Senate Majority leader Harry Reid
sounded an accusatory note. "I hope the Republicans do what the country
needs, not what they believe the tea party wants," he said at the Capitol
"I mean, it seems that every step we take,
it's something just to poke us in the eye," he said.
Boehner and Reid met privately later in the day.
While there was no indication of substantive progress, there was a marked
change in tone afterwards.
Spokesmen for the two issued identical statements,
shorn of partisan bickering, saying the two leaders "had a productive
discussion. They agreed to continue working on a budget solution."
Obama stepped forcefully into the dispute, at times
sounding like an exasperated parent.
He convened a meeting at the White House with the
chief congressional antagonists, rejected a Republican proposal for an interim
bill with sharp cuts and then announced Boehner and Reid would meet later in
the day.
If they can't sort out their differences, he said,
"I want them back here tomorrow."
And if that doesn't work, he added, "we'll
invite them again the day after that. And I will have my entire team available
to work through the details of getting a deal done."
Obama, eager to regain the confidence of
independent voters as he seeks a new term, said the American public expects
that its leaders "act like grown-ups, and when we are in negotiations like
this, that everybody gives a little bit, compromises a little bit in order to
do the people's business."
At issue is legislation needed to keep the
government running through the Sept. 30 end of the budget year, and a desire by
all sides to avoid being blamed politically if there is a shutdown.
Twin closures in the mid-1990s boomeranged on
Republicans when Newt Gingrich was speaker, helping Bill Clinton win
re-election in 1996.
This year, both the White House and lawmakers have
used the threat of a shutdown to seek leverage in the talks.
Republicans issued a 13-page pamphlet during the
day providing guidance to congressional offices on operations during a
shutdown. Boehner's office said Monday night the document had been prepared
"in the event Senate Democrats shut down the government."
Reid's spokesman, Jon Summers, likened the maneuver
to a "dress rehearsal for a shutdown that the tea party so desires."
But one Republican official said it was a response
to a memo on Monday distributed by Jeffrey Zients, deputy director of Obama's
Office of Management and Budget.
Zients wrote that all parties wish to avoid a
shutdown but, "given the realities of the calendar, good management
requires that we continue contingency planning for an orderly shutdown should
the negotiations not be completed by ... this coming Friday."
New to power, House Republicans grabbed onto the
need for a spending bill last January as a way to force spending cuts on
reluctant Democrats and the president. An initial House-passed measure, which
included $61 billion in cuts and dozens of unrelated provisions, drew a veto
threat from Obama and fell short of the 60 votes needed for passage in the
Senate.
At the same time, several Senate Democrats joined
with Republicans to reject an alternative measure to continue spending at
current levels — a post-election signal that they, too, wanted to see cuts take
effect.
In the weeks since, Congress has approved two
stopgap bills, containing a total of $10 billion in cuts at Republican
insistence, and Obama has signed both into law.
In the interim, talks on the longer-term bill have
grown increasingly acrimonious. Democrats said Boehner would eventually have to
part company from tea party-backed lawmakers who propelled Republicans to
power, and they accused him of reneging on an agreement to cut $33 billion.
In return, Republicans accused Democrats of
resorting to budget gimmicks to make it look like they favored deep cuts, when
in fact they sought higher spending.
On Monday, Boehner informed rank-and-file
Republicans he would seek passage of a new stopgap bill, a week-long measure
that includes $12 billion in cuts and funds the Defense Department through the
end of the year.
Obama rejected it. He said he would sign an interim
bill only if one were needed to get the paperwork together on a broader
agreement and pass it through both houses.
"What we're not going to do is to once again
put off something that should have gotten done several months ago," he
said. Obama didn't say so, but that was an implied jab at Democrats, who had
control of both houses of Congress last year and were unable to pass a budget
or any of the 12 annual spending bills.
Copyright
2011 The Associated Press.
(AP
Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
