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It's funny seeing obama try to act like a badass. Especially when you consider that this entire mess has come about because the democrats, who controlled the house, the senate and the presidency, didn't pass a budget last year. So now, obama wants to act like a bully and try to make Boehner buckle under the pressure, force him to make a compromise.
If Boehner sticks to his guns, which I doubt, he can force obama and reid to make some concessions.
I don't think that a government shutdown is such a bad idea. It will separate the essential employees from the non-essential. It would go a long way to fixing our budget if those non-essential employees, who are not needed during a shutdown, were given the opportunity to find their next career. Maybe if several of them had to compete for jobs in the real world, with the current obama economy, maybe there would be more a more realistic attitude about spending.
It's almost as if the people in our government don't realize that real people actually have to work for the money they continue to spend. The money just magically shows up on the doorstep. Sorry, it doesn't work that way...
From FoxNews
Even with President obama holding their feet to the fire, House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader harry reid were unable to reach a budget deal during a meeting on Capitol Hill as a government shutdown loomed this weekend.
The meeting lasted less than an hour but the two "agreed to continue working on a budget solution," spokesmen for the two said in separate statements.
Earlier Tuesday, a visibly frustrated obama said that if the meeting between the two leaders does not lead to a deal, he would summon the pair back to the White House Wednesday.
"Myself, joe biden, my team -- we are prepared to meet for as long as possible to this resolved," obama said during a surprise appearance at the White House briefing room.
obama also said that democrats have agreed with Republicans on how much to cut from the budget and that he won't accept another temporary spending bill that House Republicans are rallying behind to keep the lights on for another week.
"We've already done that twice," obama said. "That is not a way to run a government. "I can't have our agencies making plans based on two-week budgets."
obama said both sides are closer than ever to a deal and that politics shouldn't stand in the way of preventing a shutdown that would harm the economic recovery.
"There is no reason why we should not get an agreement," obama said. "At a time when the economy is just beginning to grow, the last thing we need is a disruption that's caused by a government shutdown."
In a statement following the private White House meeting earlier Tuesday, Boehner had said there was no deal. And he warned that House Republicans "will not be put in a box" of accepting options they refuse to endorse.
Boehner has proposed an agreement that would keep the government running for one more week and slash another $12 billion in spending. The GOP-led House has already passed a pair of stopgap bills, so far cutting $10 billion from an estimated $1.2 trillion budget to fund the day-to-day operations of government through Sept. 30.
obama said he would only accept another short-term funding extension, of two or three days, in order to get a longer-term deal through Congress. But he ruled out a longer extension to allow negotiations to continue.
"What we are not going to do is once again put off something that should have been done months ago," the president said.
Read the rest at the link above...