House Republicans to propose temporary debt ceiling resolution

On Thursday, House Republican leaders announced that they will move toward further negotiations with President Obama and Democrats, starting with a temporary increase in the nation’s borrowing limit. House Speaker John Boehner said that the proposal may go to a vote in the House as early as Friday, but he emphasized that he wants President Obama “to sit down and discuss with us a way forward to reopen the government and to start to deal with America’s pressing problems.”

White House spokesman Jay Carney reported on Obama’s response, saying the President was “happy that cooler heads at least seem to be prevailing in the house.” GOP leaders went to the White House to meet with the president Thursday afternoon, and Boehner said of the meeting: “I don’t want to put anything on the table. I don’t want to take anything off the table.” Also on Thursday, Senate Democrats met with President Obama, and on Friday, Senate Republicans will have their chance to meet with him.

One resolution that has provided some hope of further compromising between the two parties is the bill that will restore military death benefits, which were cut during the shutdown. The senate passed the bill on Thursday, which an unexpected move after Democrats expressed their unwillingness to comply with Republicans’ requests to reopen various parts of the government.