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Democrats, Republicans fail to reach budget deal
Top White House and congressional negotiators failed to reach an agreement Tuesday on a budget to cover the remainder of the current fiscal year, bringing the federal government closer to a shutdown at the end of the week.
Key Democrats rejected a Republican proposal to keep the government running for one more week at the cost of an additional $12 billion in cuts. Republicans, meanwhile, dismissed Democrats' insistence that there had been an agreement to cut $33 billion for the rest of the fiscal year.
If there is no deal by midnight Friday -- when the current spending authorization measure expires -- parts of the government will close down.
The budget brinksmanship showed the political stakes of the situation, with both parties trying to depict the other as unwilling to do what's right for the country.
Republicans, under pressure from the conservative Tea Party movement for deep cuts that will reduce the size of government, blame Democrats for failing to pass a fiscal year 2011 budget last year when they controlled both congressional chambers and say that President Barack Obama and his party are ignoring the peril of the rising federal deficits and national debt.
Democrats contend that spending cuts sought by House Republicans in response to the Tea Party movement pressure will harm economic recovery and slash education and innovation programs essential for continued growth. Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, both insisted Tuesday that Democrats are agreeing to more than 50 percent of the spending cuts sought by Republicans, which they said should be sufficient for a compromise on an issue that has little effect on the deficit and debt issues.
Obama spent much of the day discussing the growing budget crisis behind closed doors at the White House with key House and Senate leaders. The president met with two Republicans -- House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio and House Appropriations Committee Chairman Harold Rogers of Kentucky -- and two Democrats -- Reid and Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye of Hawaii.
Obama later made an unexpected appearance in the White House briefing room to announce that Boehner and Reid will meet on their own starting at 4 p.m. ET.
The president said that if the two men fail to make progress on their own, he expects them to return to the White House on Wednesday.
And "if that doesn't work, we'll invite them again the day after that," he promised. "There's no reason why we should not get this done."
The administration will put in "whatever resources are required in terms of time and energy" to reach an agreement, Obama said.
But what "we can't do is have a 'my way or the highway' approach to this problem," he added. "If we start applying that approach ... we're not going to get anything done."
Obama said he could support one more short-term funding extension to avert a partial shutdown, but only if a deal is also reached on spending for the rest of the current fiscal year, which ends September 30.
Reid told reporters he wasn't optimistic a deal would be cobbled together in time. "There will be no more short-term extensions," he declared. Obama "told me that."
The majority leader quickly revised his remarks, however, stating that he would be willing to consider amending the one-week House proposal if that measure reaches the Senate quickly.
House Republicans should start doing "what the country needs, not what the Tea Party wants," he fumed.
Reid has repeatedly said House Republicans are ideologically wedded to a bill that would cut $61 billion in discretionary spending -- a measure that has been rejected by the Democratic-controlled Senate.
Democrats consider that bill draconian, complaining that, among other things, it would cut key programs for continued economic recovery while eliminating funding for others opposed by conservatives, such as Planned Parenthood and National Public Radio.
For his part, Boehner insisted House Republicans wouldn't let Senate and White House Democrats put them "in a box" by forcing them to choose between a government shutdown or continued government funding with insufficient spending cuts.
"We want the largest spending cuts that are possible," he said. "We're going to continue to fight for those."
Boehner also said he would not drop the GOP's insistence on including provisions relating to hot-button social issues such as abortion, calling them important to his conservative caucus.
The speaker cast aside assertions by Obama and Reid that they had already given the GOP over half of what it initially wanted in terms of cuts. The Democrats are using "smoke and mirrors to get there," he asserted.
"Our goal is to keep the government open," Boehner insisted. "We have no interest in the government shutting down, but we are interested in cutting spending."
"We don't have a revenue problem. We have a spending problem," he said.
As the potential for a shutdown grew, an aide to Boehner said the lawmaker also told House Administration Committee Chairman Dan Lungren, R-California, to issue guidance to all members on how the House would operate in the event of a government shutdown.
A senior Democratic source with knowledge of the ongoing negotiations said the biggest obstacle to a deal involves whether reductions in mandatory spending programs, known in appropriations parlance as "Changes in Mandatory Spending" or CHIMPS, should be part of spending cuts.
Examples of mandatory spending programs include Pell Grants, the Children's Health Insurance Program and some types of highway funding. Such programs are funded for multiple years at a time, with the spending set for the time period covered, exempt from congressional authorization each year.
According to the senior Democratic source, the chiefs of staff to Inouye and Rogers negotiated throughout the weekend, and the gap between them is about $8 billion to $10 billion.
Democratic sources said they want about half the overall cuts in this spending bill to come from mandatory spending programs, and that they have proposed the necessary reductions in programs at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Justice Department, the Treasury Department and Pell Grants.
Republicans, who want any spending cuts to reflect a reduction in the size of government, note that reducing the spending in a mandatory program for one year doesn't prevent the amount from returning to its original level the following year.
Source: CNN
Key Democrats rejected a Republican proposal to keep the government running for one more week at the cost of an additional $12 billion in cuts. Republicans, meanwhile, dismissed Democrats' insistence that there had been an agreement to cut $33 billion for the rest of the fiscal year.
If there is no deal by midnight Friday -- when the current spending authorization measure expires -- parts of the government will close down.
The budget brinksmanship showed the political stakes of the situation, with both parties trying to depict the other as unwilling to do what's right for the country.
Republicans, under pressure from the conservative Tea Party movement for deep cuts that will reduce the size of government, blame Democrats for failing to pass a fiscal year 2011 budget last year when they controlled both congressional chambers and say that President Barack Obama and his party are ignoring the peril of the rising federal deficits and national debt.
Democrats contend that spending cuts sought by House Republicans in response to the Tea Party movement pressure will harm economic recovery and slash education and innovation programs essential for continued growth. Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, both insisted Tuesday that Democrats are agreeing to more than 50 percent of the spending cuts sought by Republicans, which they said should be sufficient for a compromise on an issue that has little effect on the deficit and debt issues.
Obama spent much of the day discussing the growing budget crisis behind closed doors at the White House with key House and Senate leaders. The president met with two Republicans -- House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio and House Appropriations Committee Chairman Harold Rogers of Kentucky -- and two Democrats -- Reid and Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye of Hawaii.
Obama later made an unexpected appearance in the White House briefing room to announce that Boehner and Reid will meet on their own starting at 4 p.m. ET.
The president said that if the two men fail to make progress on their own, he expects them to return to the White House on Wednesday.
And "if that doesn't work, we'll invite them again the day after that," he promised. "There's no reason why we should not get this done."
The administration will put in "whatever resources are required in terms of time and energy" to reach an agreement, Obama said.
But what "we can't do is have a 'my way or the highway' approach to this problem," he added. "If we start applying that approach ... we're not going to get anything done."
Obama said he could support one more short-term funding extension to avert a partial shutdown, but only if a deal is also reached on spending for the rest of the current fiscal year, which ends September 30.
Reid told reporters he wasn't optimistic a deal would be cobbled together in time. "There will be no more short-term extensions," he declared. Obama "told me that."
The majority leader quickly revised his remarks, however, stating that he would be willing to consider amending the one-week House proposal if that measure reaches the Senate quickly.
House Republicans should start doing "what the country needs, not what the Tea Party wants," he fumed.
Reid has repeatedly said House Republicans are ideologically wedded to a bill that would cut $61 billion in discretionary spending -- a measure that has been rejected by the Democratic-controlled Senate.
Democrats consider that bill draconian, complaining that, among other things, it would cut key programs for continued economic recovery while eliminating funding for others opposed by conservatives, such as Planned Parenthood and National Public Radio.
For his part, Boehner insisted House Republicans wouldn't let Senate and White House Democrats put them "in a box" by forcing them to choose between a government shutdown or continued government funding with insufficient spending cuts.
"We want the largest spending cuts that are possible," he said. "We're going to continue to fight for those."
Boehner also said he would not drop the GOP's insistence on including provisions relating to hot-button social issues such as abortion, calling them important to his conservative caucus.
The speaker cast aside assertions by Obama and Reid that they had already given the GOP over half of what it initially wanted in terms of cuts. The Democrats are using "smoke and mirrors to get there," he asserted.
"Our goal is to keep the government open," Boehner insisted. "We have no interest in the government shutting down, but we are interested in cutting spending."
"We don't have a revenue problem. We have a spending problem," he said.
As the potential for a shutdown grew, an aide to Boehner said the lawmaker also told House Administration Committee Chairman Dan Lungren, R-California, to issue guidance to all members on how the House would operate in the event of a government shutdown.
A senior Democratic source with knowledge of the ongoing negotiations said the biggest obstacle to a deal involves whether reductions in mandatory spending programs, known in appropriations parlance as "Changes in Mandatory Spending" or CHIMPS, should be part of spending cuts.
Examples of mandatory spending programs include Pell Grants, the Children's Health Insurance Program and some types of highway funding. Such programs are funded for multiple years at a time, with the spending set for the time period covered, exempt from congressional authorization each year.
According to the senior Democratic source, the chiefs of staff to Inouye and Rogers negotiated throughout the weekend, and the gap between them is about $8 billion to $10 billion.
Democratic sources said they want about half the overall cuts in this spending bill to come from mandatory spending programs, and that they have proposed the necessary reductions in programs at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Justice Department, the Treasury Department and Pell Grants.
Republicans, who want any spending cuts to reflect a reduction in the size of government, note that reducing the spending in a mandatory program for one year doesn't prevent the amount from returning to its original level the following year.
Source: CNN