Obama calls for a meeting with congressional leaders

On Wednesday, President Obama called for a meeting with congressional leaders to discuss the government shutdown and the efforts to defund Obamacare. Jay Carney, White House spokesman, said that the 5:30pm meeting will include House Speaker John Boehner, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. He added though, that Obama will not be making concessions, and will not be doing much negotiating with Boehner who is demanding strict limitations on Obamacare. “He is not the party to this that is making extraneous partisan demands,” Carney said about Obama.

Brendan Buck, a spokesman for Boehner, indicated a certain amount of satisfaction that the President was willing to even talk. “We’re pleased the president finally recognizes that his refusal to negotiate is indefensible,” he said. “It’s unclear why we’d be having this meeting if it’s not meant to be a start to serious talks between the two parties.”

However, Obama is not too happy with, what he called, Republicans’ “reckless” willingness to let the government shut down because they are not getting their way. Both sides are being stubborn though, and GOP Rep. Michael Grimm of New York said to CNN: “Both sides have dug in. The Democrat side won’t discuss anything at all. They won’t even have a discussion. Republicans are now in a position where they don’t want to cave in because it sets a bad precedent that the Senate would be somewhat dictating how the House runs.”