GOP Offers One-Week Stopgap

Politico reports:

President Barack Obama called top lawmakers to the White House for a meeting Tuesday, even as House Republicans edged closer to a real government shutdown Friday if the GOP’s demands for domestic spending cuts are not immediately met.

A draft bill being prepared by the House Appropriations Committee on Monday night would put the Defense Department on permanent footing through the end of this fiscal year but require $12 billion in new cuts as the price for keeping domestic agencies and the State Department operating another week.

The GOP proposal would also include a provision “preventing both federal and local funds from being used to provide abortions in the District of Columbia, ” according to a statement from the Appropriations Committee.

Whether this blunderbuss will be really fired—or kept as a threat—was unclear. But the turn of events Monday was ominous given the short time left before funding runs out Friday.

The day began with Obama extending his invitation for the White House meeting and negotiators were hoping for final decisions from the leadership to finish a bill before Friday’s funding cutoff. Instead Republicans came out blasting, venting their frustration with a flurry of accusatory press releases aimed at the White House — but even more so at Senate Democrats.

At a special party caucus Monday night, Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) set out a range of options for the GOP, including a shutdown scenario and the new funding resolution.

The $12 billion is intended as a further down payment toward a final deal, just as $10 billion in cuts were promised under two prior extensions. But Boehner has also raised the ante by demanding total cuts of more than the $33 billion target that was the focus of talks over the weekend.

At the same time, having pursued a deal even in the face of tea party criticism, he is not giving up and even called out those in his party who had failed to support him on the last extension.

The idea of breaking out Defense will be popular with his conservatives and reminiscent of a strategy Republicans also used in the 1995 government shutdown. But giving up this political engine for just another week is risky since many think Boehner will need the Pentagon budget to enact a final deal—shutdown or not.

“I’ve made clear that their $33 billion is not enough,” Boehner said, “and many of the cuts that the White House and Senate Democrats are talking about are full of smoke and mirrors.”

“It’s become sadly evident to me, and to the American people, that the White House and Senate Democrats are just not serious yet about enacting real spending cuts. … If the government shuts down, it will be because Senate Democrats failed to do their job.”

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