In The News

Durbin: Feels Better Today Than Yesterday On Budget Talks

By Siobhan Hughes and Jared Favole
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--Talks on a deal to avert a government shutdown appeared to be headed in a positive direction by Wednesday afternoon, as congressional negotiators kept talks going instead of digging in their heels and freshmen Republicans began to talk of moving onto bigger battles.
"There's progress; we're not there yet," Sen. Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) told a reporter briefly in the elevator late Wednesday afternoon.
"It's bubbling along; we'll see," Rep. Frank Lucas (R., Okla.) said after emerging from an afternoon meeting with the Republican caucus.
Earlier, Sen. Dick Durbin (D., Ill.), the No. 2 Senate Democrat, told a handful of reporters that "I feel better today than I did yesterday" because "there have been things put on the table that had not been discussed before and I think that we're moving toward closure."
House Republican Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) are locked in negotiations that must be completed and put to paper in less than 57 hours. A current measure funding the government expires at midnight Friday, when some government services would start to shut down.
A shutdown could still happen. "Is it possible? It's definitely possible," said Rep. Bill Huizenga (R., Mich.) The freshman lawmaker voted against the current interim spending measure because it didn't cut spending enough, but said that "I'm willing to look at voting for this" next spending measure because voters in his district may say that "we think you're trying."
The substance of the spending bill remains in flux. Asked whether $40 billion worth of cuts were the subject of talks, up from $33 billion that had previously been cited, Durbin said he couldn't give an exact number. At least one Republican suggested that Democrats might have to cut spending a bit more -- but that a deal could be within reach.
"I think if you're in the 40s or the 50s I think you're in a place where we're actually having a real conversation about cutting a deal," said Rep. Tim Scott (R., S.C.) said after a GOP caucus meeting.
Almost 800,000 government employees would be temporarily out of work if government funding ceases, the Obama administration estimated on Wednesday. Though Social Security checks would continue to arrive, some tax refunds and collections would cease during peak tax filing season, popular Smithsonian museums would be temporarily shuttered and housing loan guarantees would halt.
The situation has raised the stakes for both parties, which could each face their share of criticism for a shutdown. In a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, 37% say congressional Republicans would be more to blame, while 20% pointed fingers at President Barack Obama and 20% cited congressional Democrats.
President Barack Obama applied new pressure on Wednesday, saying that failure to pass a budget would halt economic momentum seen in recent months. "You want everybody to act like adults, quit playing games, realize it's not just my way or the highway," Obama said in remarks to employees at a wind-turbine company in Pennsylvania.
Durbin declined to say what new pieces of a deal were in the works, and said that he wasn't ready to rule out a government shutdown.
Boehner took the temperature of his caucus Wednesday afternoon in a closed-door meeting. Rep. Shelly Moore Capito (R., W.Va.) said Boehner's message to the conference was "Things are moving in a positive direction. The meetings between him and Reid have moved in a positive direction. It's going to take a couple of days. He needs a little more breathing room in terms of time. He's optimistic we'll be able to avert a shutdown."
In a sign that conservative Republicans face a base that is demanding large cuts, freshman lawmakers addressed a rally of hundreds of supporters outside the Capitol, where some in the crowd yelled "shut it down."
"They're expecting a lot," said Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R, Kan.), a freshman who addressed the crowd and who was among the first to break with Republican leaders to vote against the current spending bill. "There's a big appetite for reining in overspending."
If a deal isn't reached by Thursday, federal agencies will begin notifying employees about which federal workers are essential and would remain at work and which would be furloughed.
"At this point, anybody that's furloughed is not going to be paid unless Congress appropriates money to pay them," said Bill Dougan, president of the National Federation of Federal Employees, which represents 110,000 federal employees at 40 agencies, including the Defense Department and the Agriculture Department.
Still Republicans have begun to pivot to new talking points, focused on the 2012 budget proposal outlined a day earlier by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) That budget would dramatically overhaul Medicare by providing subsidies to help seniors purchase their own health insurance policies. The result would be more control over government expenditures but likely higher out-of-pocket costs and more limits on coverage.
"We have to make sure that we're crafting budgets for the next generation, not the next election," said Huizenga.
Said Sen. Roy Blunt (R., Mo.), a former House lawmaker, "I think Boehner's trying to get the best outcome right now and move on to the next target, which is a whole lot bigger."
A key sticking point remains that Republicans are still pushing to add riders to the legislation. Conservative Republicans have said that it is essential to use such riders for purposes such as blocking greenhouse-gas regulations and ending federal funding for Planned Parenthood.
Riders are "an issue," Durbin said. "It's one I hope that Speaker Boehner will think about because I thought this was about deficits rather than policy. Unfortunately, policy issues are still on the table."
-By Siobhan Hughes, Dow Jones Newswires; (202) 862-6654; siobhan.hughes@dowjones.com
(Janet Hook and Michael Crittenden contributed to this report.)