We’ve entered a phase of the spending fight where the public manifestations of the debate don’t necessarily have much correspondence with the likelihood or unlikelihood of the two parties reaching a deal.
With a two week countdown clock ticking until the next possible government shutdown, the White House has stepped up its involvement and invited congressional principles of both parties to convene with Vice President Joe Biden to put together a spending bill that will keep the government open until the end of September.
The invitation was extended Wednesday just moments before House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell held a press conference in the Capitol to warn Democrats in the Senate to put up or shut up. The House has passed a long-term spending bill (which President Obama has threatened to veto), and if the Senate wants to negotiate it has to make its position clear.
The timing of the invitation wrongfooted the two Republicans, who appeared to be toying with the idea of blowing off the White House altogether.
Asked multiple times whether he’d rebuff a meeting with the White House, Boehner demurred. “I said the House has a position,” Boehner said. “Where’s the Senate Democrats’ position? I don’t know where it is. How do you start a conversation where one house has spoken but the other house hasn’t? Where’s the starting point?”
But Democrats in the Senate, in conjunction with the White House, have been putting together something of a counterproposal. That should assuage Republicans, who, as it happens, have also been negotiating with the White House. In fact, the GOP already senses it had won the spending cut argument, and now has to wait and see if its own members will swallow different spending priorities.
