WASHINGTON -- Three senior Obama
administration officials have made it abundantly clear that the president has
no interest in budging from his position on the government shutdown or the
looming debt ceiling fight.
The officials met with a handful
of columnists and reporters on Thursday morning on condition that they not be
named or quoted. They said President Barack Obama feels as strongly about this
issue as he has about anything else during his time in office, including
passing health care reform.
The meeting came the day after
congressional leaders and the president met in the White House in hopes of
finding a path forward on the dual budget fights. That meeting ended without an
agreement. And the fact that both sides continued a media blitz the morning
after suggests that a resolution remains far off.
What's driving the president,
his aides stressed, is a belief that he needs to reorient the balance of powers
within the federal government. The three officials repeatedly argued that the
losing party in a national election couldn't be allowed to essentially nullify
the results of that election through budget sabotage.
And so lines have to be drawn --
not just to affect the policy outcomes of the next few weeks, but to set a
precedent for future negotiations.
All of which raises the
question: How does the current standoff end? If House Republicans won't pass a
deal to end the shutdown or raise the debt limit without concessions, and the
president refuses to give in, is default inevitable? Will the government ever
reopen?
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