President Obama will once again encourage Congress to get its act together in a 3 PM ET meeting at the White House later today:
Obama and Vice President Joe Biden will be joined by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)
Obama "will make clear the need for Congress to act to pay our bills, and reopen the government," the official said.
He will also repeat to the leaders that he "will not pay a ransom for Congress reopening the government and raising the debt limit."
Meanwhile, Politico reports Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid
has made an offer to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell:
Under Reid’s proposal, the debt ceiling would be extended for 6-9 months, and the government would be funded at $986 billion until some point in December.
Politico says the deal would "set up a framework" for future budget negotiations, and:
Senate Democrats are open to delaying Obamacare’s medical device tax and a requirement that those receiving Obamacare subsidies be subject to income verification — but they would have to get something from Republicans in return, sources said.
Most Democrats have already expressed support for repealing the medical device tax, although it would create $2.9 billion annual hole in the budget. It's hard to imagine Democrats seriously considering the income verification piece because it would
essentially gut Obamacare subsidies (at least given the way Republicans have talked about it).
Assuming that the income verification thing is a nonstarter and that the medical device tax issue doesn't require an offset, this seems like a pretty good deal given the fact that Democrats have already accepted that any continuing resolution will have sequester funding levels. The government shutdown would end without Republicans achieving any of their goals and the threat of default would be removed from the table.