الرئيسية
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats backed away from their demand for higher
taxes on millionaires as part of legislation to extend Social Security
tax cuts for most Americans on Wednesday as Congress struggled to clear
critical year-end bills without triggering a partial government
shutdown.
But Republicans, frustrated that a bipartisan $1
trillion funding bill was being blocked by Senate Democrats, floated the
possibility of repackaging the measure and passing it Friday in
defiance of President Barack Obama and his allies in control of the
Senate. Stopgap funding runs out Friday at midnight.
In a written
statement late Wednesday, White House Communications Director Dan
Pfeiffer said the administration objected to several environmental,
financial and other provisions in the mammoth spending bill and said
Congress should approve a short-term spending measure to avoid a federal
shutdown and give lawmakers time to iron out their final disputes.
With
time beginning to run short, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.,
met with Obama at the White House, then returned to the Capitol and sat
down with the two top Republicans in Congress, Speaker John Boehner and
Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.
Taken together, the
developments signaled the end game for a year of divided government —
with a tea party-flavored majority in the House and Obama's allies in
the Senate — that has veered from near-catastrophe to last-minute
compromise repeatedly since last January.
The rhetoric was biting at times.
taxes on millionaires as part of legislation to extend Social Security
tax cuts for most Americans on Wednesday as Congress struggled to clear
critical year-end bills without triggering a partial government
shutdown.
But Republicans, frustrated that a bipartisan $1
trillion funding bill was being blocked by Senate Democrats, floated the
possibility of repackaging the measure and passing it Friday in
defiance of President Barack Obama and his allies in control of the
Senate. Stopgap funding runs out Friday at midnight.
In a written
statement late Wednesday, White House Communications Director Dan
Pfeiffer said the administration objected to several environmental,
financial and other provisions in the mammoth spending bill and said
Congress should approve a short-term spending measure to avoid a federal
shutdown and give lawmakers time to iron out their final disputes.
With
time beginning to run short, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.,
met with Obama at the White House, then returned to the Capitol and sat
down with the two top Republicans in Congress, Speaker John Boehner and
Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.
Taken together, the
developments signaled the end game for a year of divided government —
with a tea party-flavored majority in the House and Obama's allies in
the Senate — that has veered from near-catastrophe to last-minute
compromise repeatedly since last January.
The rhetoric was biting at times.