Reid seeks 30-day spending bill, orders talks with Boehner

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) announced Tuesday that he was taking two actions he said are aimed at averting a government shutdown after March 4. 

He said he is introducing a bill temporarily extending federal funding for 30 days, to give time for spending talks with the Republican House, and that he has appointed an emissary to House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to lead the talks over funding for the rest of the year.

Reid has tapped his chief of staff, David Krone, to begin negotiations with Boehner’s chief of staff Barry Jackson.

The continuing resolution Reid will introduce would extend funding at current levels, which Reid noted is a $41 billion cut from President Obama’s 2011 budget request.

Using the same baseline for comparison, Republicans on Saturday morning passed a spending bill funding the government through Sept. 30 at $100 billion less than Obama had requested. This has set the stage for the confrontation with the Senate that could shut down the government when the current funding bill runs out March 4. 

Compared to 2010 levels at which the government roughly operates today, H.R. 1 would cut $61 billion. It also contains provisions anathema to Democrats, such a several that defund parts of Obama’s signature healthcare overhaul.

Reid’s plan contrasts with that of Boehner, who is open to a short-term CR so long as it contains some spending cuts.

“The House has passed legislation to keep the government running until October while cutting spending.  If Senator Reid refuses to bring it to a vote, then the House will pass a short-term spending bill – one that also cuts spending.  Senate Democratic Leaders are insisting on a status quo that has left us with a mountain of debt and a stalled economy with unemployment near ten percent,” Boehner said in an emailed statement.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) rejected the proposed Reid CR outright.  In a statement, he said “Washington Democrats can’t find a single dime of federal spending to cut, insisting on the status quo, even for a short-term spending bill. But keeping bloated spending levels in place and, predictably, proposing even more tax increases, is simply unacceptable.”

In his announcement, Reid attempted to pin the blame for any possible government shutdown on the GOP.

“Speaker Boehner should stop drawing lines in the sand and come to the table to find a responsible path forward that cuts government spending while keeping our communities safe and our economy growing. It would be the height of irresponsibility to shut down the government without any negotiations, as Republicans are threatening to do,” Reid said.

The Reid message is aimed at one coming out of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s (R-Va.) office earlier Tuesday which sought to attach blame to Democrats.

“While House Republicans are hard at work passing measures to cut spending, grow the economy, and keep the government operating, Senate Democrat Leader Harry Reid has yet to offer a plan and instead almost seems as though he’s hoping for a government shutdown to occur for political gain. Let me be clear, a government shutdown is not an acceptable outcome, and I call upon Leader Reid to commit to a good faith effort to work with us and take that threat off the table,” Cantor said.