President Barack Obama and House Republicans clashed in a meeting Thursday afternoon over how soon the government can be reopened, even as the GOP offered to lift the debt limit for six weeks, according to sources familiar with the session.
House Republicans told Obama at the White House that they could reopen the federal government by early next week if the president and Senate Democrats agree to their debt-ceiling proposal.
Obama repeatedly pressed House Republicans to open the government, asking them “what’s it going to take to” end the shutdown, those sources said. The meeting was described by both sides as cordial but inconclusive. Sources described the meeting without attribution, because the meeting was private.
Aides will continue the discussion through the night to see if they could find common ground on how to move forward on the debt limit and government funding.
Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) described the Republicans’ process as being two steps: passing the debt ceiling bill, and then open a broad budget conference before the government can be reopened.
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) told Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew that this was a “good-faith” effort by Republicans. Ryan said both sides should “put their guns back in their holsters” — a bid to reach an agreement to avoid default, re-open the government and start broader budget talks.
Biden was mostly quiet in the meeting but did say at one point that Obama made concessions that he hasn’t seen in 36 years in the Senate.
Publicly, House Republicans were mum when they returned to the Capitol.
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