WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama and House Speaker John
Boehner offered hints of possible compromise but also traded heated
rhetoric Tuesday, a frustratingly inconclusive combination that left the
eight-day partial government shutdown firmly in place and the threat of
an unprecedented national default drawing closer.
"There's a
crack there," Boehner said of the impasse near the end of a day of
maneuvering at the White House and the Capitol. Yet the Ohio Republican
added that it was not enough to warrant optimism.
Stocks fell
significantly — the Dow Jones average by 159 points — as political
gridlock endured. And, in the latest in a string of dire warnings, the
International Monetary Fund said failure to raise America's debt limit
could lead to default and disrupt worldwide financial markets, raise
interest rates and push the U.S economy back into recession.
Republicans
"don't get to demand ransom in exchange for doing their jobs," Obama
said at the White House. "They don't also get to say, you know, unless
you give me what the voters rejected in the last election, I'm going to
cause a recession."
Even the deaths of U.S. servicemen over the
weekend in Afghanistan were grist for the politicians. The Pentagon said
that because of the partial shutdown it was unable to pay the customary
death benefits to the survivors.
Boehner
said Congress had passed and Obama signed legislation last week
permitting the payments, adding it was "disgraceful" for the
administration to interpret the measure otherwise. He said the House
would clarify the issue with a new bill on Wednesday.
In Congress,
a plan by Senate Democrats to raise the debt limit by $1 trillion to
stave off a possible default drew little evidence of support from
Republicans.
And a proposal by Republicans to create a working
group of 20 lawmakers to tackle deficit issues, approved 224-197 by the
House, drew a veto threat from the White House, the latest in a string
of them as the administration insists the GOP reopen the government and
avert default before any negotiations on deficit reduction or the
three-year-old health care law can take place.
On a day in which
both Obama and Boehner appeared on live television, both men appeared to
be giving ground yet yielding little if anything of substance.
At midmorning, Boehner and other Republicans seemed to soften their demands.
"I
suspect we can work out a mechanism to raise the debt ceiling while a
negotiation is underway," said Rep. Tom Cole, an Oklahoma Republican who
is close to Boehner.
The speaker, who had previously insisted on
specific changes in the health care law as the price for preventing the
shutdown, told reporters, "I want to have a conversation (with Obama and
Democrats.) I'm not drawing any lines in the sand. It's time for us to
just sit down and resolve our differences."
Asked if he was
willing to raise the debt ceiling and fund the government for a short
period, the Ohio Republican sidestepped. "I'm not going to get into a
whole lot of speculation," he said.
A few hours later, Obama told a
news conference he was willing to negotiate with Republicans on budget
and other issues if Congress passed even short-term legislation to end
the crisis.
"I'll even spring for dinner again," he said,
referring to his courtship of Republican senators last winter, and
attempting to inject humor into a political impasse where invective has
been the norm.
Ninety minutes later, Boehner was unsmiling.
"What
the president said today was if there's unconditional surrender by
Republicans, he'll sit down and talk," he said. Renewing his call for "a
conversation" about key issues facing the country, the Ohio Republican
said, "Not next week. Not next month. The conversation ought to start
today."
Boehner added, "The long and short of it is, there is
going to be a negotiation here. We can't raise the debt ceiling without
doing something about what's driving us to borrow more money and to live
beyond our means."
Privately, officials said deeply suspicious
Republicans were attempting to gauge Obama's comments to see whether
they might represent a concession.
Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew
has said the deadline for Congress to act is Oct., 17, setting that as
the day the government will exhaust its ability to borrow funds and will
have to rely day-to-day on tax and other receipts to pay its bills.
Some
Republicans have downplayed the significance of the Oct. 17 deadline,
saying that even then, the United States would be able to pay China and
other holders of U.S. debt and avoid widespread economic dislocation.
But
Obama said they were badly misguided, warning that default would harm
the economy, cause retirement accounts to shrivel and houses to lose
value. Still other Republicans have made it clear in recent days they
agree with the threat posed by default and are determined to prevent it.
Inside
a closed-door meeting of the Republican rank and file, Boehner had told
his fellow Republicans they were in the midst of a tough battle and
that Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid were trying to
"annihilate us," according to one official in attendance.
Boehner's tone was different when he spoke to reporters.
"There's
no boundaries here. There's nothing on the table. There's nothing off
the table. I'm trying to do everything I can to bring people together
and to have a conversation," he said.
In
the back-and-forth, the threat of a default overshadowed the continuing
partial government shutdown. An estimated 450,000 federal workers are
idled at agencies responsible for items as diverse as food inspection
and national parks, although all employees are eventually expected to
receive full back pay.
The House approved legislation during the
day to pay for a resumption of Head Start, the pre-school program for
disadvantaged children. The vote was 248-168. The bill was the latest in
a string of measures to end the shutdown in one corner of government or
another in hopes of forcing Democrats to abandon their own demands for a
full reopening of the federal establishment.
The House also voted
420-0 to make sure federal workers on the job don't miss their next
regularly scheduled paycheck on Oct. 15.
The shutdown began more
than a week ago after Obama and Senate Democrats rejected Republican
demands to defund "Obamacare," then to delay it, and finally to force a
one-year delay in the requirement for individuals to purchase health
care coverage or face a financial penalty.
It was not a course
Boehner and the leadership had recommended — preferring a less
confrontational approach and hoping to defer a showdown for the debt
limit. Their hand was forced by a strategy advanced by Texas Sen. Ted
Cruz and tea party-aligned House members determined to eradicate the
health care law before it fully took root.
That portion of the strategy was doomed to failure, since money for the health care program was never cut off.
With
the government partially shut down, Boehner and the GOP leadership
decided to allow the closure showdown to merge with one over the debt
limit.
___
Associated Press writers Donna Cassata, Andrew
Taylor, Alan Fram, Martin Crutsinger, Julie Pace and Charles Babington
contributed to this report.
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