Reid: Sides 'Not That Far Apart'
Washington Post reports:
Top Congressional leaders will continue negotiations on 2011 budget cuts Wednesday in an effort to stave off a government shutdown, aides said, after back-to-back meetings at the White House and on Capitol Hill failed to make progress on Tuesday.
Aides to House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) and Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) said they were at least somewhat encouraged by a late-day meeting Tuesday between the two lawmakers in the speaker’s office.
Although the session produced no breakthroughs, aides to both lawmakers issued identical statements calling it “a productive discussion” — a significant shift in tone after a week in which the two had traded accusations across the Capitol. Reid closed the Senate chamber Tuesday evening with an optimistic speech describing “good faith” talks that are “not that far apart.”
“The government is not going to shut down — yet,” Reid said.
In the meantime, federal agencies began preparing workers for what would happen if the federal government does shut down for the first time since the mid-1990s, and D.C. residents and tourists considered the possibility of a spring weekend without Smithsonian museums or the National Zoo.
President Obama is scheduled to leave Washington around noon for a town hall on energy in the Philadelphia area. A group of senior officials, led by Vice President Biden, met earlier Wednesday in the White House on the spending impasse.
On Tuesday, Obama and congressional leaders talked for 80 minutes in the West Wing, but remained billions of dollars apart and at odds over where to find savings. In the meeting, Boehner floated the possibility that he may seek as much as $40 billion in cuts, $7?billion more than the two sides have been discussing for the past week.
Growing irked by the prolonged negotiations, Obama demanded that the congressional leaders “act like grown-ups.”
“If they can’t sort it out, then I want them back here tomorrow. And if that doesn’t work, we’ll invite them again the day after that,” Obama told reporters in a rare appearance in the press room.
Boehner’s aides deflected reports that the speaker is setting a new target of $40 billion in cuts. But he also rejected the $33 billion figure that Republican leaders in the House and Democratic leaders in the Senate had been working toward.
“There was no agreement, so those conversations will continue. We made clear that we’re fighting for the largest spending cuts possible,” Boehner told reporters Tuesday, moments after Obama spoke.
Reid continued to accuse Republicans of not being “fair and reasonable” in their demands for higher cuts and specific changes to social and regulatory policies. Asked if he would be willing to reach $40 billion in cuts, however, Reid demurred.
“I’m not negotiating here what we’re going to do ultimately,” he told reporters.
