Obama Steps Up Role In Endgame Budget Talks

President Barack Obama
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With the threat of a government shutdown looming if Republicans and Democrats don’t agree on spending cuts by the end of the week, President Obama is stepping up his role in last-minute budget negotiations and plans to meet with Congressional leaders over lunch Tuesday.

Democratic senators and Vice President Joe Biden have said both sides have agreed to a rough spending-cut figure of $33 billion but are still haggling over whether to include several policy riders on the bill and exactly where to focus some $6 to $8 billion of the spending cuts.

“The President has made clear that we all understand the need to cut spending, and significant progress has been made in agreeing that we can all work off the same number,” White House Jay Carney told reporters at Monday’s briefing. “With the process running short on time, the President will urge leaders to reach final agreement and avoid a government shutdown that would be harmful to our economic recovery.”

But Boehner Tuesday afternoon appeared to be reaching for even greater spending cuts than the $33 billion figure in an effort to please his Tea Party base and like-minded fiscal conservatives in the House. He also accused Democrats of using budget gimmicks to justify many of their cuts, which is declared “unacceptable.”

“Despite attempts by Democrats to lock in a number among themselves, I’ve made clear that their $33 billion is not enough and many of the cuts that the White House and Senate Democrats are talking about are full of smoke and mirrors,” Boehner said in a statement. “That’s unacceptable. I look forward to continuing these discussions, but for those discussions to be meaningful it will require the White House and Senate Democrats to bring a serious proposal to carry out the people’s will of cutting spending.”

Boehner also reiterated the goal of cutting spending and keeping the government open, and continued the threats of brikmanship by once again saying it would the Democrats’ fault if the government shuts down.

“The Senate hasn’t passed a single bill to keep the government running or offered a credible plan to make real spending cuts; the House has,” Boehner said.

Before Boehner’s comments, Carney said Obama remained confident that both sides could avert a shutdown if “we, together, roll up our sleeves and get to work very quickly.”

“But time is of the essence, and that is why [Obama] is calling this meeting for tomorrow and it is why he made some calls, as you know, over the weekend to Speaker Boehner and Leader [Harry] Reid [D-NV].”

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