Budget meeting at White House ends with no deal
WASHINGTON — An Oval Office meeting this morning yielded no deal on a final budget resolution, raising the specter of a government shutdown at week’s end.
President Obama had called today’s meeting in an effort to finalize a deal that Democrats have said was within reach but Republicans had yet to coalesce around.
Participants included Vice President Joe Biden; House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio; Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.; and the chairmen of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees, Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Ky., and Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii.
In a statement released after leaving the White House, Boehner’s office said there was a “good discussion” but that Republicans would not accept a deal “that fails to make real spending cuts.”
The most recent stopgap spending plan expires Friday night, and failure to pass a new bill by then would result in the first government shutdown since President Bill Clinton battled with congressional Republicans in the mid-1990s. House rules require any proposed legislation to be posted online 72 hours before a vote, which means a deal must come by day’s end.
