FOXNews.com: On the road again: Amid stalemate, Obama campaigns for budget bill

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On the road again: Amid stalemate, Obama campaigns for budget bill Oct 3rd 2013, 12:45 Published October 03, 2013 FoxNews.com April 3, 2013: President Obama speaks about tightening gun regulations during a visit to the Denver Police Academy in Denver, Colo.Reuters One would think that if the budget crisis is going to be resolved, it's going to happen somewhere in the one-mile stretch between the White House and Capitol Hill.  But while Congress convened once again Thursday to weigh a set of mini-spending bills, President Obama was planning to be 20 miles away -- taking his bid to pressure Republicans, once again, on the road.  Ahead of the president's visit to a construction company in Rockville, Md., the White House made clear the president was not budging off his position that Republicans must pass a "clean" spending bill, free of provisions dealing with ObamaCare.  "He will not negotiate. He will not offer concessions to Republicans in exchange for not tanking the economy," Press Secretary Jay Carney said.  The president held a late-afternoon meeting Wednesday with bipartisan congressional leaders, but the session ended as it began -- with each party retreating to previously stated positions and a compromise nowhere in sight.  Obama is now returning to a tactic he's employed many times before, making his case to supporters at campaign-style events in a bid to increase pressure from the outside on his political foes. The tactic, though, continues to open the president to Republican accusations that he's veering clear of the negotiating table, where a deal presumably would be struck.  "At times like this, the American people expect their leaders to come together and to try to find ways to resolve their differences," House Speaker John Boehner said Wednesday evening after the White House session broke up. "The president reiterated one more time tonight that he will not negotiate."  Ever since the president rallied for the passage of a national stimulus package in 2009, Obama has made campaign-style speeches part of his repertoire in advocating for legislation.  The past year has been filled with these kinds of events. Last December, Obama rallied Detroit union supporters over tax hikes amid the fiscal cliff showdown  Then in February, he pressured Republicans, from a shipyard in Virginia, to strike a deal on the sequester to avoid harsh spending cuts. The tactic didn't work -- the "supercommittee" tasked with solving the problem ended up deadlocked, and the cuts went into effect.  Then came a national push for gun control legislation. Then again in May, Obama launched an effort to pressure Congress to hold down student loan rates.  It's unclear whether Obama's pressure campaign will work this time. Republican leaders are no doubt cognizant that during the last partial government shutdowns in 1995 and 1996, their party was largely blamed for the impasse and suffered in the next elections.  But the party is holding the line, arguing that their demands that ObamaCare be curtailed are in line with what the American people want.  While Obama is on the road, House Republicans are trying to increase pressure on the president's party by calling up a series of mini-spending bills and daring Democrats to oppose them. On Wednesday, the House -- without much Democratic support -- approved bills to fund the national parks and the National Institutes of Health. Another bill was passed allowing the District of Columbia to spend its own funds.  Bills to fund the Veterans Affairs Department and National Guard are on tap for Thursday in the House.  Tempers were flaring among the rank-and-file as leaders failed to reach a compromise.  Lawmakers spent the evening Wednesday shouting at each other. In perhaps the most intense exchange, Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., repeatedly accused his GOP colleagues of waging "jihad" on Americans.  Miller, who was a champion of the federal health care law when it was being drafted, claimed Republicans who are now complaining about the national parks being closed did not show the same concern over health care. He said: "When you were on the jihad against Americans' access to health care, shutting down the parks wasn't a problem. Shutting down NIH wasn't a problem."  Miller was then ruled "out of order." After he left the floor, Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, said he was "disgusted" by Miller's comments.  "We should all reject his comments," Simpson said, adding that Miller should be formally censured "but I won't call for it."

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