After declining to commit themselves on Wednesday, GOP leaders have announced that they will in fact meet with White House officials and Democratic leaders this afternoon to discuss a long-term budget solution.
Vice President Joe Biden, along with White House chief of staff Bill Daley and OMB director Jack Lew, is scheduled to meet with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.), Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.), House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio), and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) at 4 p.m. in the Capitol.
Both sides have said they want a continuing resolution that cuts spending and keeps the government running through September 30 (the end of the fiscal year). Regarding the level of spending cuts, Democrats have indicated that a final package would end up about halfway between their “plan” (to cut nothing) and the House Republican bill (H.R. 1) to cut $61 billion. Republicans have persistently pointed out that the Democrats have yet to produce a concrete proposal to cut spending.
In a speech on the Senate floor, McConnell said Republicans “are happy to go” and hear what Democrats have to say, but did not express a great deal of enthusiasm beyond that.
“Putting a meeting on the schedule doesn’t change the fact that neither the White House nor a single Democrat in Congress has proposed a plan that would allow the government to remain open and that would respond to the voters by reining in spending,” he said. “The fact is if Democrats had a plan of their own to cut one dollar of spending, we would have seen it by now.”