Obama to Meet with Congressional Leaders on Shutdown - East Idaho News
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Obama to Meet with Congressional Leaders on Shutdown

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Getty 020413 PresidentObama?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1380732086930File photo. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)(WASHINGTON) — With much of the federal government paralyzed for a second day, President Obama will meet with congressional leaders Wednesday in search of a way to end the government shutdown and increase the debt ceiling.

The talks will mark the first time Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., have convened with Obama in person on such issues.

It’s unclear whether the meeting signals that both sides are ready to negotiate. Obama intends to reiterate his position that Republicans pass a “clean” spending bill, according to the White House, and Republicans also signaled that they want Democrats to give in on some of their demands.

The meeting would be meaningless if Democrats are still unwilling to negotiate, Republican leaders in both the House and Senate suggested.

“Just yesterday, the president reaffirmed that he would not negotiate with Congress, and Senate Democrats actually voted not to negotiate,” McConnell said through a spokesman. “So frankly, we’re a little confused as to the purpose of this meeting.”

The meeting comes as congressional Republicans are increasingly under pressure to either hold their ground or take an escape hatch offered to them by Democrats and a small but growing number of moderate Republicans who seek to end the unpopular shutdown.

To do so would require the House to abandon its efforts to alter the Affordable Care Act, and instead pass a so-called “clean” funding bill that the Senate and President Obama could accept.

“I’m concerned about those that are on furlough right now,” Rep. Michael Grimm, R-N.Y., told ABC News. “I know what it’s like to make $30,000 a year and barely be able to pay your rent.”

“My heart goes out to those people and that’s why I will do whatever I have to do to fund the government, to get this shutdown over,” he continued.

The strategy, now backed by 14 lawmakers and counting, would likely require that a Republican-led House of Representatives rely principally on Democratic votes and at least 17 Republicans to approve the bill.

But it could further weaken House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, who has had difficulty navigating through the crisis in a way that satisfies the more conservative, tea party-backed wing of his party.

While a “clean” bill would give Boehner a fast way to put a stop to the negative impact a shutdown has on Republicans in public opinion, it would certainly infuriate conservatives in the Republican Party’s base, who have lobbied the leaders of their caucus for months to take a stand on this issue.

The political pressure only intensified after Republicans’ latest strategy, to ameliorate some of the shutdown’s effects on veterans, national parks and the District of Columbia, failed to pass in the House Tuesday night and it faced certain rejection in the Senate and from the White House.

If Boehner chooses to hold his ground, however, there is a growing belief that the shutdown could last for days or weeks.

Already, the White House announced that Obama canceled his trip to Malaysia and the Philippines scheduled for next week, indicating that the White House believes the shutdown could continue into a second week.

And some Republicans see a political upside in merging negotiations over the funding of the government, with a separate negotiation process over raising the debt ceiling.

If Congress does not vote to raise the debt ceiling by Oct. 17, the country would default on its debts.

President Obama warned Republicans Tuesday against taking this fight to the upcoming debt-ceiling deadline.

“The last time Republicans even threatened this course of action — many of you remember, back in 2011 — our economy staggered, our credit rating was downgraded for the first time,” Obama said in the Rose Garden Tuesday. “If they go through with it this time and force the United States to default on its obligations for the first time in history, it would be far more dangerous than a government shutdown, as bad as a shutdown is.”

“It would be an economic shutdown,” he concluded.

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

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