GOP, Dems Resume Budget Talks

The Hill reports:

Secretive talks between Senate Democrats and House Republicans resumed Tuesday night in Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's (D-Nev.) office.

Reid had earler in the day called on the GOP to entertain a new Democratic offer to cut an additional $20 billion from the 2011 budget. By Reid's math, that proposal is $70 billion less in spending than President Obama had originally requested in February 2010, and $6 billion short of the cuts House leaders called for, before demanding $25 billion more at the behest of Tea Party freshmen.

“Sitting on Sen. Reid’s desk right now is a serious proposal that cuts $70 billion in government spending while protecting America’s economic recovery. If Republicans are truly interested in forging a bipartisan agreement that avoids a government shutdown, they should come back to the negotiating table and look at what’s in the proposal,” Reid spokesman Jon Summers had said late Tuesday.

After that, staff from House Speaker John Boehner's (R-Ohio) office came over to the Senate side and examined the proposal. The GOP is insisting that it has not signed onto anything the Democrats are proposing and is demanding that some of the policy riders the House backs be in a final deal.