Both sides are digging in, deep, but they don't have much time left
on the clock. Lawmakers have until midnight to reach a budget deal, or
else the government will begin the process of shutting down.
The Senate pulled a page Monday from Yogi Berra and sent the House into "deja vu all over again," killing a Republican counter-proposal that would have delayed ObamaCare -- and sending House Speaker John Boehner back to consider yet another proposal to stall the implementation of the law.
Senate Democrats, though, have vowed to reject that counteroffer."As we said Friday, nothing has changed. If they try to send us something back, they're spinning their wheels," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said.
Republicans are huddling to plot their next move. Party leaders already have their counterproposal at the ready -- a bill that would delay the so-called individual mandate by a year while ensuring that high-level administration officials, members of Congress and their staff must get their health insurance through ObamaCare.
"It's a matter of fairness for all Americans," Boehner said.
"We still continue to believe the individual mandate being delayed is in the best interest of the American people and the bill will come to the floor sometime late this evening," Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., told reporters. GOP leaders, though, are running into some trouble corralling the votes for the new plan.
A prior Republican effort to include a provision defunding ObamaCare in the budget bill failed. House Republicans then voted, early Sunday, to add amendments delaying the health care law by one year and repealing an unpopular medical device tax.
The Senate, in a 54-46 vote, rejected those proposals on Monday afternoon.
In a rare note of optimism, President Obama said earlier Monday that he's "not at all resigned" to a shutdown.
But the path forward is not clear. With nothing less than the operation of government on the line, the battle in Congress over ObamaCare was shaping into a test of wills.
Boehner had pressured Reid to accept his chamber's version. "It's time for the Senate to listen to the American people, just like the House has listened to the American people," House Speaker John Boehner said Monday morning.
But Reid has outright stated he will not accept any measures that undermine the health care law as part of the budget bill. With the bill back on the House side, Boehner and Reid now face off with their final set of chess moves in a very narrow time frame. Lawmakers have until midnight to strike a deal.
Reid wants Boehner to simply call up the "clean" budget bill, without any ObamaCare provisions, and presumably let it pass with majority Democratic support.
"I have a very simple message to John Boehner: let the House vote," Reid said Monday.
On Sunday, House Republican Whip Kevin McCarthy indicated his caucus might still have a few more plays left.
"We have other options for the Senate to look at," he told "Fox News Sunday."
There are a few other ideas floating around the Hill for targeting ObamaCare without going so far as to defund it -- which is what the first version of the House Republicans' bill did.
But at this stage, a shutdown is highly possible, and congressional leaders are hard at work trying to assign blame.
Democrats have already labeled this a "Republican government shutdown." But Republicans on Sunday hammered Reid and his colleagues for not coming back to work immediately after the House passed a bill Sunday morning.
"O Senate, where art thou," said Tennessee Rep. Marsha Blackburn, riffing on the movie "O Brother, Where Art Thou."
Blackburn made her comments along with other members of the House Republican Conference at an informal press conference on the steps of Capitol Hill.
"That the senators are not here ... is all that everyone needs to know," said Arkansas Republican Rep. Tim Griffin. "Democrats want to shut down the government. ... That's a scorched earth policy."