| Politico | - |
President
Barack Obama and House Republicans clashed in a meeting Thursday
afternoon over how soon the government can be reopened, even as the GOP
offered to lift the debt limit for six weeks, according to sources
familiar with the session.
President Obama to GOP: ‘What’s it going to take?’
President Barack Obama and House Republicans clashed in a meeting
Thursday afternoon over how soon the government can be reopened, even
as the GOP offered to lift the debt limit for six weeks, according to
sources familiar with the session.
House Republicans told Obama at the White House that they could reopen the federal government by early next week if the president and Senate Democrats agree to their debt-ceiling proposal. After the debt ceiling is lifted, a House GOP aide said they would seek some additional concessions in a government funding bill.
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The meeting was described by both sides as cordial but inconclusive. Obama acknowledged to Republicans that notable progress had been made. Sources described the meeting without attribution, because the meeting was private.
Aides will continue the discussion through the night to see if they could find common ground on how to move forward on the debt limit and government funding. The short-term debt hike — which was originally proposed at the closed GOP meeting Thursday — did not include plans to reopen the government.
Obama agreed to review the House Republican proposal for reopening the government, but reiterated that he wouldn’t pay a ransom, the Democratic source said.
At the meeting, Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) described the Republicans’ process as being two steps: passing the debt ceiling bill, and then opening a broad budget conference before the government can be reopened.
(PHOTOS: 18 times the government has shut down)
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) told Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew that this was a “good-faith” effort by Republicans. Ryan said both sides should “put their guns back in their holsters” — a bid to reach an agreement to avoid default, reopen the government and start broader budget talks.
Biden was mostly quiet in the meeting but did say at one point that Obama has made concessions as president that he hasn’t seen in 36 years in the Senate.
Publicly, House Republicans were mum when they returned to the Capitol.
“We had a very useful meeting,” Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said, upon returning from the White House Thursday evening. “It was clarifying I think for both sides as to where we are and the takeaway from the meeting was, our teams are going to be talking further tonight, we’ll have more discussion, we’ll come back to have more discussion. The president said that he would go and consult with the administration folks and hopefully we can see a way forward after that.”
(PHOTOS: Debt ceiling fight: 20 great quotes)
A senior House GOP aide said Obama “did not say yes or no to House Republicans’ offer.” Both sides are continuing talks tonight, according to the aide.
The White House said Obama had a “good meeting” with House Republican leaders that lasted about 90 minutes.
“After a discussion about potential paths forward, no specific determination was made,” according to a White House readout. “The President looks forward to making continued progress with members on both sides of the aisle.”
For much of Thursday, it appeared that Washington slowly edged away from a potential default on Thursday as congressional leaders crafted plans to raise the debt ceiling ahead of the Oct. 17 deadline. Wall Street liked the apparent legislative movement: The Dow Industrial Average soared 323 points Thursday.
(POLITICO's full government shutdown coverage)
Obama met separately with Senate Democrats and House Republicans at the White House. Senate Republicans will meet with Obama on Friday morning.
The talk in the House GOP visit centered around Speaker John Boehner’s proposed measure to lift the debt ceiling through Nov. 22, while banning Treasury from employing so-called extraordinary measures to keep paying the nation’s bills. The legislation had no corresponding spending cuts, as other debt ceiling bills had.
The legislation would also set up a negotiation over the borrowing cap and government funding. At this time, there are no spending cuts attached to the legislation. There is also no vote scheduled.
If Obama buys into the GOP plan, senior Republican sources say that Boehner could have enough internal political capital to move a bill next week to reopen government until Nov. 22.
Across the Capitol, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is taking the temperature of his own GOP colleagues on ways to reopen the government — which has been shuttered for 10 days — and raise the debt ceiling.
Among the options under consideration is a proposal building on the work of Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) that would raise the limit for two months and reopen the government for six months in return for a repeal of Obamacare’s medical device tax, a requirement to means test those seeking Obamacare subsidies and provide more flexibility for agencies to maneuver around the sequester.
Though ideas to move on from the budget mess are growing, there’s no consensus yet. A White House official sounded cool to the House GOP plan and offered support for a Senate Democratic proposal to raise the debt ceiling through the end of 2014, reiterating that the government should reopen and the debt ceiling be raised ahead of any talks.
House Republicans told Obama at the White House that they could reopen the federal government by early next week if the president and Senate Democrats agree to their debt-ceiling proposal. After the debt ceiling is lifted, a House GOP aide said they would seek some additional concessions in a government funding bill.
Continue Reading
Obama repeatedly pressed House Republicans to open the
government, asking them “what’s it going to take to” end the shutdown,
those sources said. He questioned why the government should remain
closed if both sides agreed to engage in good-faith negotiations on the
budget, according to a Democratic source briefed on the meeting.
(WATCH: 10 great quotes on debt ceiling fight)The meeting was described by both sides as cordial but inconclusive. Obama acknowledged to Republicans that notable progress had been made. Sources described the meeting without attribution, because the meeting was private.
Aides will continue the discussion through the night to see if they could find common ground on how to move forward on the debt limit and government funding. The short-term debt hike — which was originally proposed at the closed GOP meeting Thursday — did not include plans to reopen the government.
Obama agreed to review the House Republican proposal for reopening the government, but reiterated that he wouldn’t pay a ransom, the Democratic source said.
At the meeting, Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) described the Republicans’ process as being two steps: passing the debt ceiling bill, and then opening a broad budget conference before the government can be reopened.
(PHOTOS: 18 times the government has shut down)
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) told Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew that this was a “good-faith” effort by Republicans. Ryan said both sides should “put their guns back in their holsters” — a bid to reach an agreement to avoid default, reopen the government and start broader budget talks.
Biden was mostly quiet in the meeting but did say at one point that Obama has made concessions as president that he hasn’t seen in 36 years in the Senate.
Publicly, House Republicans were mum when they returned to the Capitol.
“We had a very useful meeting,” Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said, upon returning from the White House Thursday evening. “It was clarifying I think for both sides as to where we are and the takeaway from the meeting was, our teams are going to be talking further tonight, we’ll have more discussion, we’ll come back to have more discussion. The president said that he would go and consult with the administration folks and hopefully we can see a way forward after that.”
(PHOTOS: Debt ceiling fight: 20 great quotes)
A senior House GOP aide said Obama “did not say yes or no to House Republicans’ offer.” Both sides are continuing talks tonight, according to the aide.
The White House said Obama had a “good meeting” with House Republican leaders that lasted about 90 minutes.
“After a discussion about potential paths forward, no specific determination was made,” according to a White House readout. “The President looks forward to making continued progress with members on both sides of the aisle.”
For much of Thursday, it appeared that Washington slowly edged away from a potential default on Thursday as congressional leaders crafted plans to raise the debt ceiling ahead of the Oct. 17 deadline. Wall Street liked the apparent legislative movement: The Dow Industrial Average soared 323 points Thursday.
(POLITICO's full government shutdown coverage)
Obama met separately with Senate Democrats and House Republicans at the White House. Senate Republicans will meet with Obama on Friday morning.
The talk in the House GOP visit centered around Speaker John Boehner’s proposed measure to lift the debt ceiling through Nov. 22, while banning Treasury from employing so-called extraordinary measures to keep paying the nation’s bills. The legislation had no corresponding spending cuts, as other debt ceiling bills had.
The legislation would also set up a negotiation over the borrowing cap and government funding. At this time, there are no spending cuts attached to the legislation. There is also no vote scheduled.
If Obama buys into the GOP plan, senior Republican sources say that Boehner could have enough internal political capital to move a bill next week to reopen government until Nov. 22.
Across the Capitol, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is taking the temperature of his own GOP colleagues on ways to reopen the government — which has been shuttered for 10 days — and raise the debt ceiling.
Among the options under consideration is a proposal building on the work of Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) that would raise the limit for two months and reopen the government for six months in return for a repeal of Obamacare’s medical device tax, a requirement to means test those seeking Obamacare subsidies and provide more flexibility for agencies to maneuver around the sequester.
Though ideas to move on from the budget mess are growing, there’s no consensus yet. A White House official sounded cool to the House GOP plan and offered support for a Senate Democratic proposal to raise the debt ceiling through the end of 2014, reiterating that the government should reopen and the debt ceiling be raised ahead of any talks.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/10/government-shutdown-debt-ceiling-update-98134.html#ixzz2hQb90k3P
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