Reid is meeting with McConnell, but rejects concessions on shutdown or debt limit

Senate Democratic leaders held a press conference Saturday afternoon on the future of the government shutdown and possibilities of default. Though the press conference was held just two hours after Republicans blocked a clean extension of the debt limit through 2014, Sen. Chuck Schumer said that, after a morning meeting with Majority Leader Harry Reid, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander, he was "considerably more optimistic today than I was yesterday." Reid, too, emphasized that McConnell being interested in meeting was a positive step, though it has so far yielded nothing conclusive.

That said, there's plenty of reason for concern after the failure of the clean debt limit extension. As Schumer said, "this is playing with fire. We don't know when the markets will react to this." And there are very definitely no guarantees the Reid-McConnell talks will succeed:

When asked if he is confident he could reach a deal with McConnell, Reid told POLITICO: “No.”

“I’m just doing my best, I’m not confident in anything in the way Republicans have acted,” the Nevada Democrat said.

While Senate Democrats are in active discussions with Republicans, Reid and the rest of the leaders speaking Saturday afternoon continued to reject Republican demands, with Reid saying "they're not doing us a favor by reopening the government. They're not doing us a favor by extending the debt ceiling. That's part of our jobs." So, no, Republicans won't get major concessions—including those proposed by Sen. Susan Collins—from Democrats just in exchange for doing a most basic part of their jobs.