Here's What's Next In Washington Showdown

Key Republican discusses gov't funding, debt ceiling, stalemate

WND

A key Republican in the U.S. House says his party was successful in the recent stalemate with President Obama over the partial shutdown of the federal government – because Obama is now willing to negotiate.

The dispute arose when the Democrats in the Senate refused to discuss a budget compromise proposed by House Republicans, and the federal budget expired Oct. 1.

Since then, Obamacare, military spending, the debt ceiling and other issues have been added to the mix.

Then, just as the week was ending, Republicans presented Obama with a proposal that he said he was considering, and it may resolve some of those issues.

Rep. John Fleming, R-La., told WND the solutions are a ways off still, but the goal appears to be getting closer.

“What we have achieved, and it doesn’t sound like much, but with President Obama, this is quite a breakthrough. We’ve achieved the goal … to get the president to negotiate on negotiating,” Fleming said.

Fleming stresses that firm details on any common ground are very premature, but he did offer some educated guesses on where the two sides could be headed.

“We could perhaps have a temporary increase in the debt limit, which would give us time to have more substantive negotiations,” he said. “Hopefully, in exchange for a year-long increase in the debt ceiling, we would also get reforms in our entitlement programs and other savings and maybe even get some relief in sequester.”

Asked what he would like to see in those areas, Fleming said means testing for programs like Medicare could be involved.

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Reposted with permission.

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