On the eve of a possible government shutdown, the top congressional leaders tamped down their rhetoric and tried to reassure skeptics that their differences can be resolved at the eleventh hour.
Striking a much different note than a day before, leaders from both parties conceded that the differences over a bill to keep the government funded through next year and a separate plan to extend the payroll tax holiday were resolvable.
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?We?ve done enough, Mr. President, back and forth, the Republican leader and me, staking out our positions, and our positions are fairly clear to the American people,? Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Thursday morning. ?We?re going to try ? during the next few hours ? to work toward resolving some of the outstanding issues.?
The clear decrease in temperature on Capitol Hill left hope that Congress could adjourn without creating a pre-Christmas crisis.
In remarks at the White House Thursday, President Barack Obama also sought to get things moving before the weekend on the payroll tax and government funding bill.
?Congress should not and cannot go on vacation before they have made sure that working families aren?t seeing their taxes go up by $1000,? said Obama, whose own Hawaiian vacation is looming. ?There?s no reason the government should shut down over this.?
Reid said he had a productive conversation with Senate Appropriations Chairman Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) on Thursday morning and added that there are only a ?few issues still outstanding? that are ?really small in number.? House Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) told POLITICO that negotiators were ?close? to a compromise, saying the end game will become clear at some point Thursday afternoon.
Reid also said it would be a ?mistake? for the House to move on its own bill and called for the two chambers to pass a $1 trillion conference report funding a host of federal agencies, saying he expected the Senate was moving Thursday to resolve the remaining concerns.
?We hope that we can come up with something that would get us out of here at a reasonable time in the next few days,? Reid said.
Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) agreed.
?We?ve been in useful discussions about how to wrap the session up,? McConnell said. ?We hope to be able to pass a combination of appropriation bills and we are working hard to resolve the remaining differences on the payroll tax extension and the related issues that are important to both sides. And we?re confident and optimistic we?ll be able to resolve both on a bipartisan basis.?
Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), who is famously calm, matched his Senate counterparts? calm with his own zen.
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