Congressional negotiators make no progress as spending deadline looms this Friday
Congress has until Friday to pass an omnibus spending bill to keep the government open (and they're not in session today, of course). Negotiators did work over the weekend, but it appears they're not much closer to a deal and, if anything, the potential deal-breakers are proliferating rather than being whittled down.
Senior aides in both parties say Republican leaders offered their Democratic counterparts a new funding proposal last Friday, but the latest offer produced no breakthrough and both sides continued negotiations through the weekend while making little headway. The two sides are hashing out policy riders covering Syrian refugees, environmental policy and oil exports, among other issues. […]The long hours show how much both sides want to avoid a government shutdown. Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), whom GOP lawmakers elected only a month ago to lead the House, is steadfast that the funding debate will be settled without any repeat of 2013, when the federal government shut down for 16 days.
Leadership might not want a shutdown, but that's certainly not to say the Freedom Caucus and other maniacs agree. So in addition to issues like a hugely expensive tax extenders proposal and poison pill riders like a fight over Iraqi and Syrian refugees, a rollback of environmental, net neutrality, and financial reform regulations (among others) there's stuff like Planned Parenthood defunding that could once again rear its ugly head. That particular one was supposedly abandoned but keeps resurfacing in the reporting around the negotiations.
Freedom Caucus members are making it clear that after swallowing the "crap sandwich" that was the John Boehner-budget agreement, they want House Speaker Paul Ryan to give them something: "We made it really clear that the president got what he asked for. He got his $50 billion for social spending," Freedom Caucuser Rep. Matt Salmon (R-AZ) said. "Now its our turn and I don't think it’s unreasonable."
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi has a reminder for Republicans, however. While acknowledging that "we have to compromise, Republicans have a majority," she reminded Republicans that "the president has the signature and we can sustain a veto so let's talk." That even includes sustaining a veto on barring refugees. At least 26 of the 47 Democrats who abandoned principle last month to vote to bar refugees have signed onto a letter reversing their position. If they can manage to hang together on that, they can probably force Republicans to roll back some of their worst ideas. For example, there's already reportedly some rethinking on the tax extenders and not making permanent some of the big corporate tax giveaways.
What seems the likeliest outcome, however, is that the next four days does not provide an agreement that everyone can live with and that can pass in both the House and Senate. That means we're probably going to see another stop-gap continuing resolution to provide funding for another week or another month. Or, if the Freedom Caucus and/or Sen. Ted Cruz decide to get really Freedom-y, a government shutdown.