US President Barack Obama has failed to break a budget impasse with Republicans during dramatic late-night talks, though he said the two sides were creeping toward a deal to avert a government shutdown.
Obama met Republican House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner and Democratic Senate leader Harry Reid late on Wednesday, seeking to defuse a hugely significant showdown before a midnight deadline tonight for federal funding to run dry.
If no deal is reached, vast parts of the US government will be shuttered, forcing combat troops to go without paychecks and national parks to close in a shutdown that could also damage the fragile economic recovery.
Photo: BLOOMBERG
“I thought the meetings were frank, they were constructive and what they did was narrow the issues and clarify the issues that are still outstanding,” Obama told reporters after the 90-minute talks ended.
“I remain confident [that] if we are serious about getting something done, we should be able to complete a deal and get it passed and avert a shutdown,” he said.
“I am absolutely convinced we can get this done. There is no reason why we should have a government shutdown,” Obama said.
The talks, designed to pull both sides back from the political brink and fund the government through Oct. 1, came after Obama earlier told Republicans to “quit playing games” while they questioned his leadership.
However, in a sign tempers may be cooling, Boehner and Reid later appeared together before reporters outside the White House after leaving the talks.
“We did have a productive conversation this evening. We do have some honest differences but I do think we made some progress,” Boehner said. “But I want to reiterate there is no agreement on a number ... there is an intent on both sides to continue to work together to try to resolve this. No one wants the government to shut down.”
Neither side would identify where the differences remained.
Republicans, however, are demanding sweeping budget cuts in domestic spending and foreign aid and policy changes, while Obama has offered cuts, but has dug in his heels at cutting crucial education and environmental programs.
The faceoff is the most overt clash yet between Obama and Republicans, who captured the House in an electoral rout in November, and could go a long way to defining the early terrain of next year’s presidential re-election bid.
A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll found only 28 percent of Republicans want their leaders in Congress to compromise over the budget cuts, compared with 68 percent of Democrats and 76 percent of political independents who said they wanted their leaders on Capitol Hill to do so.
Officials said about 800,000 federal workers could be temporarily laid off if the government shuts down, and warned that the economy could get a hit, just as growth is slowly picking up.
“At a time when you’re struggling to pay your bills and meet your responsibilities, the least we can do is meet our responsibilities to produce a budget,” Obama said in Pennsylvania.
Boehner had earlier sharpened his tone after a meeting of the Republican House caucus that included conservative budget hawks demanding huge spending cuts from party leaders who must eventually find a way to make a deal with Senate Democrats on a budget.
“I like the president personally, but a president needs to lead — he didn’t lead on last year’s budget, and he clearly isn’t leading on this year’s budget,” Boehner said.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese