Harry Reid says that he and John Boehner have resumed negotiations to get a deal done to prevent a government shutdown:
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Wednesday that he and Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio) are in talks on the budget, calling bitter rhetoric on the subject as coming from “people who aren’t even sitting at the negotiating table. ... Much of the criticism in this process has come from people who aren’t even sitting at the negotiating table,” Reid said, as he opened the Senate floor. “But I am. And so is Speaker [John] Boehner. I’m glad he’s returned to the conversation.”
But even as Reid expressed confidence that a deal can get done, Boehner delivered a statement blistering Democrats and blaming them for the budget impasse. And in a closed door session with House Republicans, Boehner, speaking of Democrats, vowed to "kick their ass."
Apparently, Boehner is more afraid of his increasingly disgruntled tea party base than in appearing to be unwilling to negotiate.
Nonetheless, despite Boehner's pessimistic public posture and his promises to deliver an ass-kicking, the evidence suggests Reid's optimism about the potential for compromise is closer to the mark. As he said, negotiations are underway—and they appear to be making progress. Yesterday, David Rogers reported that the two sides were within $6 billion of an agreement on an overall funding level, depending on what happens with policy riders. And today he reports that serious talks are underway between the House and Senate Appropriations committees.
In an off-camera briefing, Rogers asked Eric Cantor about that $6 billion gap. Cantor didn't dispute the accuracy of Rogers' reporting, but said he didn't know anything about it, implying that he's been out of the loop on negotiations—a claim that appears to be contradicted by Cantor's own statement on Friday that no progress had been made in negotiations. And during the briefing with Rogers, Cantor had once again said no progress was being made:
I think we ought to be driving as many spending cuts that we possibly can consistent with the desire of our members with a unified position that we have not seen the Democrats - President or anybody in the White House or the Senate - we have not seen indicated that they're willing to go where we want to go with spending cuts.
Cantor seems to be trying to have it both ways. When presented with evidence that a deal is within reach, he denies knowledge of negotiations, but at the same time, he's got no problem saying that negotiations aren't going anywhere. As with Boehner, he isn't willing to publicly tell the tea party that they aren't going to get everything they want.
There's been a suggestion that Boehner and Cantor are playing some sort of good cop, bad cop routine, but actually they both seem scared to death of the tea party contingent in their own party—hence their unwillingness to admit they are open to compromise. But even if they don't want to admit to it publicly, the fact remains that if they want to avoid a government shutdown, they are going to need to compromise. As Harry Reid put it: "If they want to move the country forward, they can’t let the Tea Party call the shots."