President Obama and his Democratic allies, betting they can force congressional Republicans into near total surrender regarding the government shutdown and federal debt ceiling, rejected multiple GOP offers Saturday in hopes of a better deal.
Chances for an agreement, which lawmakers hoped to outline before markets open next week, now rest with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who on Saturday morning began face-to-face talks aimed at ending the shutdown fight.
“I hope that our coming together gives some solace to the American people,” Reid said. “This hasn’t happened until now.”
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The talks began as negotiations between Obama and House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) collapsed.
Boehner told his conference in a Saturday morning meeting that Obama had spurned his offer to extend the government’s ability to spend money for six weeks with a chance to reopen government if Democrats agreed to other conditions like entitlement cuts.
“The Senate needs to hold tough,” Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) said Boehner told House GOP lawmakers. “The President now isn’t negotiating with us.”
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In his weekly radio address, Obama made clear he was fed up with House Republicans whose disgust for Obamacare forced a government shutdown heading into a 13th day.
“It doesn’t have to be this way. It’s not supposed to be this way,” Obama said.
“Manufacturing crises to extract massive concessions isn’t how our democracy works, and we have to stop it. Politics is a battle of ideas, but you advance those ideas through elections and legislation — not extortion.”
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Obama’s comments came shortly after Senate Republicans derailed the Democrats’ own effort to raise the debt limit until the end of 2014. The near party-line vote of 53-45 fell seven short of the needed 60.
Reid returned the favor by rejecting an alternative bipartisan plan led by Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) to end the shutdown and raise the debt ceiling.
Democrats insist Republicans must agree to reopen the government by funding it and raise the debt ceiling.
Reid made it clear he felt his party had the upper hand.
“Their number one issue is to do anything they can to divert attention from the fools that they’ve made of themselves on Obamacare,” Reid said.
With News Wire Services
