House Republicans were told by Speaker John Boehner Saturday morning that negotiations between the House GOP and President Obama have ended, with Obama’s rejection Friday of the House’s latest offer.
At a closed door meeting in the basement of the Capitol, Boehner urged members to hold firm, several said, even as Senate Republicans work to negotiate their own proposal to end the impasse.
House members expressed anxiety about the Senate talks. House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin) said House leaders were only briefed on a proposal being circulated by Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) on Saturday morning and were opposed to it. He said the reasons for opposition were too many to enumerate.
Admitting it’s not optimal, Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) said Saturday that “all eyes are now on the Senate” this morning as the House waits to see how the upper chamber votes on a bill to fund the government.
Rep. Raul Labrador (R-Idaho) sounded a frustrated note as he left a GOP conference meeting.
“The president rejected our deal,” Labrador said.
“It’s all good. It’s now up to the Senate republicans to stand up,” the Idaho republican added.
Briefing reporters Friday after markets closed for the week, White House press secretary Jay Carney praised a “new willingness” among Republicans to end the government shutdown — now in its 12th day — and to acknowledge that default on the national debt “would be catastrophically damaging.”
But with the Treasury Department due to exhaust its borrowing authority in just six days, Carney said the president would not agree to go through another round of economy-rattling talks in six weeks, just before the Christmas shopping season.
“It at least looks like there’s the possibility of making some progress here,” Carney said. But “the president’s view is that we have to remove these sort of demands for leverage, using essentially the American people and the economy.”
Before Carney spoke, Obama telephoned Boehner (R-Ohio) and the two men agreed to keep talking, aides said. Afterward, GOP senators marched into Boehner’s office and counseled him to adopt an approach they had presented to Obama earlier in the day, during their own meeting at the White House.
With Republicans getting battered in public opinion polls over the shutdown, Senate GOP leaders urged Boehner to join them in supporting a single, big-bang measure that would open the government and raise the debt limit in one fell swoop.
“I laid out some of those ideas, and the question is, can the House find a center of gravity to open the government up around those ideas,” Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) said after exiting the speaker’s office with Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.). The two men, former House members, have been close friends with Boehner for almost 20 years.
Details were still fluid late Friday, but the latest 23-page draft of the emerging measure would immediately end the shutdown and fund federal agencies for six months at current spending levels. It would maintain the deep automatic cuts known as the sequester but give agency officials flexibility to decide where the cuts should fall.
At a closed door meeting in the basement of the Capitol, Boehner urged members to hold firm, several said, even as Senate Republicans work to negotiate their own proposal to end the impasse.
House members expressed anxiety about the Senate talks. House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin) said House leaders were only briefed on a proposal being circulated by Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) on Saturday morning and were opposed to it. He said the reasons for opposition were too many to enumerate.
Admitting it’s not optimal, Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) said Saturday that “all eyes are now on the Senate” this morning as the House waits to see how the upper chamber votes on a bill to fund the government.
Rep. Raul Labrador (R-Idaho) sounded a frustrated note as he left a GOP conference meeting.
“The president rejected our deal,” Labrador said.
“It’s all good. It’s now up to the Senate republicans to stand up,” the Idaho republican added.
Briefing reporters Friday after markets closed for the week, White House press secretary Jay Carney praised a “new willingness” among Republicans to end the government shutdown — now in its 12th day — and to acknowledge that default on the national debt “would be catastrophically damaging.”
But with the Treasury Department due to exhaust its borrowing authority in just six days, Carney said the president would not agree to go through another round of economy-rattling talks in six weeks, just before the Christmas shopping season.
“It at least looks like there’s the possibility of making some progress here,” Carney said. But “the president’s view is that we have to remove these sort of demands for leverage, using essentially the American people and the economy.”
Before Carney spoke, Obama telephoned Boehner (R-Ohio) and the two men agreed to keep talking, aides said. Afterward, GOP senators marched into Boehner’s office and counseled him to adopt an approach they had presented to Obama earlier in the day, during their own meeting at the White House.
With Republicans getting battered in public opinion polls over the shutdown, Senate GOP leaders urged Boehner to join them in supporting a single, big-bang measure that would open the government and raise the debt limit in one fell swoop.
“I laid out some of those ideas, and the question is, can the House find a center of gravity to open the government up around those ideas,” Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) said after exiting the speaker’s office with Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.). The two men, former House members, have been close friends with Boehner for almost 20 years.
Details were still fluid late Friday, but the latest 23-page draft of the emerging measure would immediately end the shutdown and fund federal agencies for six months at current spending levels. It would maintain the deep automatic cuts known as the sequester but give agency officials flexibility to decide where the cuts should fall.