As Washington lurched precariously closer to a government shutdown, President Obama once again summoned Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) to the White House Thursday afternoon in an attempt to strike a deal.
But at the end of the meeting, both sides appeared far from a compromise.
“We continue to have productive conversations — they are polite and to the point,” Boehner said, “but there is no agreement on the number of the policy.”
Reid said he is “disappointed” that they haven’t been able to strike a deal with less than 24 hours until the government will shutdown, which will take place after midnight Friday, if the standoff continues.
Reid and Boehner will return to the White House at 7 p.m. to continue the negotiations.
The impasse continued even as both sides claimed the American people are fed up with games and Washington politics.
“People expect us to get the deal done,” White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters at the onset of the White House meeting.
Carney, however, wouldn’t say whether the two sides had agreed on an overall figure for the continuing resolution that would fund the government through September. Previously, Senate Democrats and Vice President Joe Biden had claimed that both sides had agreed to $33 billion, but Boehner has since balked at the number, and knowledgeable aides have said the target figure for Republicans is closer to $40 billion.
The Thursday afternoon meeting follows another emergency session Obama, Boehner and Reid held late Wednesday night. This morning, both Boehner and Reid said they were less optimistic about an agreement than before.
Reid decried Republican insistence on including anti-abortion and climate change rollbacks in a final budget bill. Boehner denied that policy riders were hamstringing final negotiations, arguing instead that the impasse is over cutting spending and reducing the federal debt.
Carney said only that Obama is dead-set against including ideological provisions in the funding measure.
Before the meeting began, Boehner said Thursday there is “far more than one provision” holding up progress on an agreement.
House Republicans said the House would remain in session Friday and lawmakers would remain in Washington over the weekend until a deal is struck.
In an increasingly intense game of chicken, House Republicans readied a bill to extend funding for one more week. That bill would also finance the military for the entire fiscal year, giving Republicans cover from critics that they are creating uncertainty and failing to support U.S. troops fighting overseas.
Obama Thursday afternoon threatened to veto it because it called for cuts than current funding levels and also includes an abortion restriction for the District of Columbia.
“The president supports a clean and simple continuing resolution,” Carney said.
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