Politics

Obama to give statement as Democrats harden budget stance

Neil Munro White House Correspondent
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President Barack Obama will make a brief public appearance around 4:45 p.m. at the White House, where he is expected to reject the GOP’s third budget-compromise deal.

The appearance was announced in a 4:15 message to reporters and will come early enough to get Obama on the evening newscasts.

“FACT: The House GOP plan to force a government #shutdown would close our national parks and the Smithsonian museums,” Obama’s spokesman Jay Carney tweeted a moment later.

In the House, GOP leaders have announced they will try to overcome opposition from the Democratic-dominated Senate by passing a third compromise measure.

Like the first two measures, this bill would fully fund the federal budget for several weeks, but it would also end the lucrative exemptions from Obamacare regulations that were granted by Obama to his aides and to Hill staffers.

The GOP bill will also set a one-year delay for the Obamacare rule mandating people buy health-insurance. The mandate-delay is modeled after the delay already granted to companies by the White House.

“What our members want is fairness for the American people,” the GOP Speaker of the House, Rep. John Boehner said during a brief afternoon press conference.

“The president provided a one year delay of the employer mandate. He’s provided exceptions for unions and others. There’s even exceptions for Members of Congress. We believe that everyone should be treated fairly. So we’re going to move here in the next several hours to take the Senate bill, add to it a one year delay of the individual mandate on the American people,” he said.

“It’s a matter of fairness for all Americans,” he said.

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