After the House’s latest partial spending measure passed Saturday, House Republican leadership asserted that the government shutdown could end if President Obama came to the negotiating table.
“This can all end,” House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) told reporters. “All the president has to do is sit down, along with Senate Democrats.”
“We never wanted a shutdown,” he added. “That’s why we’ve fully funded the government.”
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) reiterated that House GOP leadership would not bring the Senate spending bill to the floor.
“We have committed to fund the areas of government that we all agreed on, which is more areas than not. We’re trying to ease the pain here. They’re not joining us,” Cantor said. “We’re saying we’ve got a lot that we have in common. I think most Americans will not tolerate that this president has continued to say he’s not going to talk.”
In an interview with the AP released Saturday, Obama repeated that he would be willing to work with House Republicans on long-term government spending, but only after they pass the Senate bill to re-open the government and raise the federal debt ceiling.
