AP
Thursday: President Obama and Vice President Biden enter the White House briefing room to speak to the media after a meeting with House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., on the budget and possible government shutdown.
WASHINGTON -- Everything relating to a budget for the fiscal year is resolved except for "women's health," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Friday, arguing that Republicans are holding up a deal that would prevent a federal government shutdown over ideology.
Reid, who said negotiators agreed to a final number of $38 billion in cuts for the fiscal year that is now more than half over, called women's health "the only thing left undone."
"It is an ideological battle it has nothing to do with fiscal," said Reid. "It has everything to do with women's health. It was the only issue that was left undone when we left the White House last night. ... We agreed on spending cuts and they still are not happy."
But Republicans say the outstanding issue is about spending cuts and not policy issues.
Despite Reid's claim that the remaining sticking point is "women's health," more specifically, funding for Planned Parenthood, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner said the largest issue is still spending cuts.
"The American people want to cut spending to help the private sector create jobs -- and the Democrats that run Washington don't," said spokesman Michael Steel.
Seems the two sides can't agree about which issues they have disagreements.
The "rider" -- or policy directive included in the spending bill -- on funding Planned Parenthood has been central to the argument made by Republicans that government is paying for programs it has no business being in -- namely, abortions -- and it's driving the debt into the stratosphere.
But Democrats say the issue is proof that ideology is the issue -- and House Speaker John Boehner is beholden to the Tea Party members of the Republican Party.
"We were not very far apart," said one senior Democratic aide. "The bigger issues seemed to be ideological. I think the speaker needed the drama for his internal purposes."
Speaking to Fox News early Friday, Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., said the outstanding issues are related to health care and funding the Environmental Protection Agency's climate change enforcement measures.
"We're talking about life and death, and these are issues that we have to deal with, investment in people, and we can't afford to stop and go. And cutting doesn't mean that you're saving money," Rangel said. "If you close clinics or hospitals or health care or environmental conditions ... if you do all those things even for a week or a day or a month ... it costs a lot more money to put it back in."
Republicans countered that Democrats are rooting for a government shutdown or else the Senate would've passed a one-week resolution approved by the House on Thursday that cuts $12 billion would fund the Pentagon for the remainder of the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30.
"There's nothing in the bill that won't largely be encompassed in a final package because, again, neither the administration nor Senate Democrats have raised a single policy objection. The only plausible reason for Senate Democrats to refuse to pass it, or for the president to refuse to sign it, is if they intend to shut down the government," reads a blog by Boehner staffer Don Seymour.
Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, the No. 4 Republican in the House, said Democrats are calling the bill "radical" because it funds government "at 98 percent of last year's level."
"We're trying to put America on a fiscally sustainable path," said Hensarling, who appeared with Rangel on Fox News. "This is still substantially a fight over the direction of the country. ... At some point you gotta quit borrowing 42 cents on the dollar borrowed from the Chinese."
While negotiators worked through the dwindling hours, Obama said Thursday night he was expecting an answer in the morning on avoiding a shutdown.
"My hope is, is that I'll be able to announce to the American people sometime relatively early in the day that a shutdown has been averted, that a deal has been completed that has very meaningful cuts in a wide variety of categories, that helps us move in the direction of living within our means, but preserves our investments in things like education and innovation, research, that are going to be important for our long-term competitiveness," Obama told reporters in an appearance at the White House briefing room.
"That's what I hope to be able to announce tomorrow. There's no certainty yet, but I expect an answer sometime early in the day," he said.
Rangel said that if a deal is reached, Congress could dispense with procedural rules to pass the legislation before a shutdown occurs, allaying concerns that even if the sides agree to a deal, they don't have enough time to get it done before the midnight deadline.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/04/08/hoyer-says-negotiators-70-percent-way-numbers-budget-deal/#ixzz1IwqB65fX
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