For all of the theater around the GOP claim that it is time to talk to get rid of this stalemate (even though the GOP have been dragging their feet on this for 6 months), it turns out that they don’t want to talk, really. President Obama invited ALL Democrats and Republicans from both the Senate and the House to meet with him at the White House this week. Only 18 of the GOP members are going. Seriously. You whine and whine about talking with the President, the President invites ALL of y’all to meet with him in the White House and you can’t bother to rouse your caucus. This isn’t much better than not appointment members to a budget conference, really.
The WH responds:
“President Obama is disappointed that Speaker Boehner is preventing his members from coming to the White House,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said in a statement.
“The President thought it was important to talk directly with the members who forced this economic crisis on the country about how the shutdown and a failure to pay the country’s bills could devastate the economy,” he said. “The President will talk to anyone anytime and looks forward to their visit to the White House, but will not pay the Republicans ransom for doing their job. If the Republicans want to have a real discussion they should open the government and take the threat of default off the table.”