So this is what John Boehner is up against if he gives the tea party wing of the GOP veto power over a deal to avert a government shutdown:
Tea partiers claim that they don't really want a shutdown—they say they just don't want to compromise. Privately, however, they
admit to pollsters that they think a shutdown would be a good thing.
Harry Reid and John Boehner are scheduled to meet again at the White House tonight with President Obama to see if they can work out a deal to avert a shutdown. If they don't, a shutdown is all but guaranteed unless the House waives its three-day requirement for posting legislation.
Democrats have agreed to $33 billion in cuts, the exact same figure Boehner originally proposed, but Boehner's tea party flank has said the $33 billion is not enough. Despite Boehner's efforts to secure deeper cuts, Democrats have stood firm on the previously agreed to $33 billion figure, and negotiations are continuing at that level, Sam Stein reports. Boehner could undoubtedly find enough Democratic votes to pass a compromise funding bill at that level, but if he insists on there being at least 218 Republican votes, it will make a bipartisan agreement all but impossible, forcing a shutdown—unless he can somehow convince his tea party hardliners to back down.