(Newswire.net — October 11, 2013) Washinton, DC — (AP) The nation’s economy on the line, President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans groped inconclusively into late hours on Thursday for a compromise to avert an unprecedented U.S. default as the 10-day-old government shutdown ground on.
“We expect further conversations tonight,” House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said cryptically at nightfall, after he, Speaker John Boehner and a delegation of other Republicans met for more than an hour with Obama at the White House.
The White House issued a statement describing the session as a good one, but adding, “no specific determination was made.”
Yet it seemed the endgame was at hand in the crises that have bedeviled the divided government for weeks, rattled markets in the U.S. and overseas and locked 350,000 furloughed federal workers out of their jobs. Both sides expressed fresh hopes for a resolution soon.
The up-and-down day also featured a dour warning from Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, who told lawmakers that the prospect of default had already caused interest rates to rise — and that worse lay ahead.
Appearing before the Senate Finance Committee, Lew said the Treasury must pay Social Security and veterans benefits as well as salaries to active duty military troops during the second half of this month. He said failure to raise the $16.7 trillion debt limit by Oct. 17 “could put timely payment of all of these at risk.”
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid advanced legislation to simply raise the debt limit and stave off the threat of an unprecedented federal financial default — a measure that Republicans are likely to block unless he agrees to change it.
Across the Capitol, Boehner left open the possibility of launching a rival measure in the House on Friday.
As he described it for his rank and file in a closed-door morning session in the Capitol, it would leave the shutdown in place while raising the nation’s $16.7 trillion debt limit and setting up negotiations between the GOP and the president over spending cuts and other issues.
At the White House, spokesman Jay Carney told reporters the president would “likely sign” a short-term extension in the debt ceiling, and did not rule out his doing so even if it left the shutdown intact.
Reid wasn’t nearly as amenable. “Ain’t gonna happen,” he said brusquely.
In remarks on the Senate floor during the day, Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the GOP leader, said that Democratic measure “just won’t fly. … The American people can be persuaded to raise the debt ceiling, but they’re not in any mood to simply hand over a blank check.”
Since the current standoff began more than two weeks ago, Republican demands have shifted continuously, while the president’s position has remained essentially unchanged.
The shutdown began on Oct. 1 after Obama ruled out any concessions that would defund, delay or otherwise change the new health care law. He said he would be willing to negotiate on a range of issues, but only after the shutdown was ended and the debt limit raised.
Republicans drafted a long list of demands to accompany any increase in the debt limit, including some that would raise the cost of Medicare for better-off beneficiaries, make changes to the health care law and roll back several environmental regulations either issued or in the planning stages by the administration.
In recent days, the focus has shifted from the shutdown to the threat of default, and Republicans have spoken less and less frequently about insisting on concessions in the health care law.
The call for negotiations on long-term deficit cuts would mark a return to basics for the House Republican majority.
Associated Press writers Alan Fram, Stephen Ohlemacher, Andrew Taylor, Jim Kuhnhenn, Julie Pace, Donna Cassata and Martin Crutsinger contributed to this story.