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With a new short-term agreement in place that gives lawmakers just 16 days before the government runs out of money, Senate Democrats are calling in their big gun: Vice President Joe Biden.
"In the next 24 hours, there will be some meetings that will be directed by Vice President Biden," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced in a news conference today. "And I'm happy that, in fact, is the case."
Lawmakers postponed the threat of a government shutdown Wednesday, when the Senate passed a two-week spending bill that funds government operations through March 18th. But Democrats and Republicans are still sparring over spending cuts in a longer-term bill to keep the government running through the rest of the year.
Reid has refused to allow a vote on a House-passed measure that includes $61 billion in cuts, labeling the spending reductions proposed by House Republicans as “extreme.”
To bridge that chasm between the two sides, Democrats are calling in an old hand.
Biden has been no stranger to the Hill, even since leaving it to join the administration. A former senator who has personal relationships with key Senate Republicans, Biden played a critical role last year brokering a deal with Republican Leader Mitch McConnell on an extension of the Bush-era tax cuts.
While the White House has largely remained on the sidelines during Congressional budget negotiations, Democrats feel Biden's presence will present a united front. Democratic leaders say they’re being careful to ensure their proposed spending cuts don't conflict with the administration’s priorities.
"We want to be at one with the White House,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. “We want to be working together with them. We don't want to have them have a budget and we have a budget."
Republican leaders contend that Biden's role won't dramatically impact the talks, instead placing the onus on Senate Democrats to propose significant spending cuts.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, House Speaker John Boehner would not commit to taking part in negotiations with Biden, noting that talks between the two parties have already been in progress.
"I think it's important to make clear that we've been in discussions with our Democrat colleagues for weeks. This isn't something new," said Boehner. "And the House's position is, we passed a bill. It's out there. And I think it's time for [Democrats] to outline for us what's their position to keep the government funded."
Msnbc.com's Carrie Dann contributed
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If Joe Biden is now a "Big Gun", he will be hurting even worse when he shoots himself in the foot!
Oh, God.
Hey, Super Joe, while we got'ya here, lets talk 2012 budget. Lets see if can whittle down that $1.65 trillion dollar deficit your boss submitted. Maybe get it down to something more manageable, like, oh, lets shoot for the moon, maybe $1.59 trillion?
has anyone seen ol' gaffe machine biden lately? hope he's alright!! maybe billary and obama sent him to a deserted island to keep him quite.
most ineffective and absent VP ever??? think so!
Biden couldn't negotiate his way out of a paper bag with both ends open.
I hope the House doesn't move an inch until Reid gets his spending bill through the Senate. Once both bills are done we can move forward with reconciliation, not before. Reid needs to throw some Senate political capital into the ring and not pander around in namby pamby land.
To borrow a line from the 2008 Democratic primary "Joe's right!"
Good to see the Dems going out with their best.
Joe Biden's in charge. I think we can all see just how "serious" the White House is about this.
Wasn't Joe in charge of porkulus? Bang up job, Joe.
Um, House Speaker John Boehner you think it's time for [Democrats] to outline for us what's their position to keep the government funded?
How' bout you being clear on your J-O-B-S, J-O-B-S, J-O-B-S, creation plan. It's time!
Surely, it would help.
JOBS, JOBS, JOBS. Wasn't that a Dude-in-Chief campaign promise? Where are the jobs Bev? Please spin this for me.
WEll Jobs is a good Idea if you could have gotten the Republicans to go along with any of the democrats plans instead of just commiting to saying no to everything proposed! They should take every Republican and stand them side by side and start them marching into the ocean! That would solve most of our economic problems!
You know, the whole thing could be avoided if they just made everyone pay their fair share. Take a look at Bank of America and Wells Fargo. Anyone know how much they paid for their 2009 taxes? $0. That's right $0. You know, the banks that we gave billions of dollars to the year before. The reason basically is because their losses were higher than their profits. I like that tax code, I got laid off a while last year and overall my income became less than the total sum of my bills, therefore I should not have to pay taxes on my income...
Look at the statistics. Ever since the talk has gone to budget cuts the jobs numbers have started getting better! Amazing how businesses that feel more secure start hiring.
Crazy Joe. He is worse than His dumb Boss
Vice President of the United States. Were you one of the people during the Bush years that said it was unpatriotic to question/admonish the commander in chief? Have some respect.
Boehner says it's time for Dems to outline their position to keep the gov't funded.
If so, it sounds like he is directly linking budget spending cuts (read deep cuts) to the avoidance of a gov't shutdown.
Very dangerous Mr. Speaker!
Obama delegates anything he thinks might hurt his reelection chances to some flunky
Isn't SAVING US FROM AN ECONOMIC MELTDOWN/ BANKRUPTCY through conservative BUDGETING something OBAMA needs to do HIMSELF?
Or is selling off the Grand Canyon and other Federal Property to the highest bidder Obama's ONLY solution?
The Vice President is a flunky? Is that what you said about Cheney? Really?
Echo
It was said about Cheney and in the same situation it would be true of Cheney
The president needs to be involved this most critical happening of his administration to date
Madison, Is it not the job of the vice president to preside over the Senate in the role of president of the Senate? Quite frankly, I think Vice President Biden has been a very good partner for President Obama. Why do we always have to find negative that isn't even there in the first place?
Better than the last one who got us into $1.2 trillion war based on a web of lies.
Actually, the decision to use force (no declaration of war was made) was passed in a bi-partisan manner. You see, the president (any president) cannot unilaterally make that decision.
Do you really believe that b.s. ?
I sure hope you have bigger balls than your boss
The biggest distinction that I see between the two parties is that the Democrats believe it is the government that creates jobs, whereas conservatives believe that getting government out of the way creates jobs. Therefore, from the conservative side cutting spending does create jobs. In reality the most important fact is confidence throughout the country, which requires acceptable unemployment.
If you think cutting 1 1/2% ($60 billion) from the budget when we are going to have a deficit of $1,600,000,000,000.00 just this year, then it is going to be hard to find any type of solution.
I believe the Democrats with little help from the Republicans have created jobs via the government cause the private sector quit creating jobs. The economy has been expanding for a few months and will grow more rapidly in the future. More jobs are on the way as it is the last thing to improve in a recovery. The question is, what type of jobs are to be created.
Having the budget cuts being in education is just plain stupid. It will gaurantee more uneducated working poor that are only qualified for service industries and we all know what type jobs those are. They also pay lower taxes and need more public assistance, cept those are the other programs we are supposed to cut according to some.
Well NOTHING will get done now. Biden is an IDIOT. Of course, that might be a good thing. Hurry up 2012 so we can get Mr. Obama and this administration of misfits out of there.
YourTruth4u,
As a fellow conservative who also hates the direction in which Obama wants to lead my country, I want to personally thank you for adding absolutely nothing to this discussion. It's funny; even coming from the opposite side, your drivel sounds exactly like that of the liberals clamoring for Bush's impeachment a few years back.
Someone ought to make a little playpen message board where you guys can just fire insults and shake your picket signs at each other in peace. Meanwhile, the grown-ups will be in the other room having a normal discussion, since we'll no longer have to sift through 75% of the posts that are on here now.
For my two cents worth, Boehner's not making much of a case for bipartisanship and cooperation by basically saying, "You don't like our ideas? Fine, we give up. You deal with it." Right, that's gonna get things done. Way to pay back the people who put you there. It's sad that the American political process has degenerated from a solid, intelligent system to, essentially, sibling rivalry. I want my country back. The real one, not this shell that's left of it.
So Reid and Schumer have been found wanting by the White House and Jolly Joe Biden is coming to the rescue.
It will be interesting to see where the compromise process heads at this point.
Joe has a history of helping get things down with bipartisan support and this will be a great opportunity for him to do it again.
His approach will also be interesting to see, if he comes in demanding and threatening I do not think this is going very far, but if he comes in with a let's keep this but cut that and maybe we cam save a little here by cutting a little more there...then things will get done.
I wish him well and guess this is as much leadership as the President intends to saw as far as participation in this budget compromise process.
Well you gotta work with what you have so Democrats and Republicans let's gitter done.