U.S. Capitol (photo: aoc.gov)
The Senate today defeated both the Republican and Democratic spending alternatives and President Obama held talks with Senate Democrats to try to avoid a government shutdown.
The House GOP spending bill was defeated by a 44-56 margin, with all but three Republicans (DeMint, Lee, and Paul) voting in favor of it.
The Democratic spending bill was defeated by a 42-58 margin. Every Republican voted against it. Eleven members of the Democratic caucus joined them, though the only one opposing clearly opposing it from the left was Bernie Sanders.
Meanwhile, President Obama is meeting this afternoon with Senate Democrats on the budget in discussions the White House spokesman Jay Carney said are "aimed at the purpose of finding the common ground that we need so that we can fund the government for the rest of the year, with substantial spending cuts." Given that no Republicans are involved in the meetings, the likely translation of that statement is that the meetings are designed to see how far Democrats are willing to move towards the GOP position.