Lots of talking, but no deal to avoid government shutdown
ASSOCIATED PRESS April 7, 2011 6:02AM
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., walk out to speak to reporters after their meeting at the White House in Washington with President Obama regarding the budget and possible government shutdown, Wednesday, April 6, 2011. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
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Updated: April 7, 2011 11:38PM
WASHINGTON — With time growing short, President Obama and congressional leaders bargained and blustered by turns Thursday, still shy of an agreement to cut federal spending and head off a midnight Friday government shutdown that no one claimed to want.
Obama held talks at the White House twice during the day with House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), and aides negotiated for hours in between in pursuit of a deal.
With an agreement elusive, Republicans passed legislation through the House to fund the Pentagon for six months, cut $12 billion in domestic spending and keep the federal bureaucracy humming for an additional week. “There is absolutely no policy reason for the Senate to not follow the House in taking these responsible steps to support our troops and to keep our government open,” Boehner said.
But Obama flashed a veto threat even before the bill passed on a 247-181, mostly party-line vote. The administration issued a statement calling it “a distraction from the real work” of agreeing on legislation to cover the six months left in the current fiscal year, and there was no indication Reid would allow a vote on it.
For all the brinksmanship, there was agreement that a shutdown posed risks to an economy still recovering from the worst recession in decades.
The political fallout was less predictable, especially with control of government divided and dozens of new Tea Party-backed Republicans part of a new GOP majority in the House. Twin government shutdowns in the mid-1990s damaged Republicans, then new to power in Congress, and helped President Bill Clinton win re-election in 1996.
This time, individual lawmakers worked to insulate themselves from any political damage. Senators Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), both seeking new terms in 2012, became the latest to announce they would not accept their congressional salary during any shutdown.
“If retroactive pay is later approved, I’ll direct my part to the U.S. Treasury,” Nelson said.
One day before the shutdown deadline, events unfolded in rapid succession.
In a shift in position, Obama said he would sign a short-term measure keeping the government running even without an agreement to give negotiations more time to succeed.
That was one of the options available to Reid, although Boehner said he was confident Democratic lawmakers would persuade “Reid and our commander in chief to keep the government from shutting down” by signing the House-passed bill.
At the White House, a senior budget official said the impact of a shutdown “will be immediately felt on the economy.”
It also would be felt unevenly, said Jeff Zients, deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget. Military troops would not receive their full paychecks, but Social Security recipients would still get monthly benefits, he said.
There was no indication Reid planned to bring the House-passed stopgap bill to a vote, and he accused Republicans of blocking a deal by demanding anti-abortion provisions and a blockade on Environmental Protection Agency regulations on greenhouse gas and other pollutants.
“We don’t have the time to fight over the Tea Party’s extreme social agenda,” he said.
For all the tough talk, it did not appear the two sides were too far from a deal.
Officials in both parties said that in the past day or so, Democrats had tacitly agreed to slightly deeper spending cuts than they had been willing to embrace, at least $34.5 billion in reductions.
There also were hints of Republican flexibility on a ban they were seeking to deny federal funds to Planned Parenthood.
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