FOXNews.com: Republicans accuse Dems of overplaying hand as budget debate shifts to sequester cuts

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Republicans accuse Dems of overplaying hand as budget debate shifts to sequester cuts Oct 14th 2013, 11:41 Published October 14, 2013 FoxNews.com The terms of the debate shifting rapidly, lawmakers on Monday entered a critical week for resolving the budget and debt-ceiling impasse with Senate leaders Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell struggling to reach an accord -- and Republicans accusing Democrats of overplaying their hand.  Congress, aside from grappling with the partial government shutdown, faces an Oct. 17 deadline to raise the debt ceiling. After that date, the Treasury Department warns, the U.S. government will not be able to pay all its bills.  But both sides were having a difficult time keeping track of what the other wants out of a deal. A stand-off that began as a fight by Republicans to unravel ObamaCare is now a fight over spending levels. After a string of budget proposals fell apart over the weekend, GOP lawmakers on Sunday pointedly accused Democrats of trying to squeeze Republicans to roll back across-the-board spending cuts known as sequester.  Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., on "Fox News Sunday," indicated that Republicans had gone too far in their gambit of insisting that dismantling ObamaCare must be part of any spending bill to fully reopen the government, which has been partially shut down since Oct. 1.  However, he said Democrats have now gone too far by demanding the rollback of sequester, considering the 2011 Budget Control Act makes the cuts just as much "the law of the land" as ObamaCare.  "I agree that Republicans started with the overreach, but now Democrats are one tick too cute," he told Fox News. "They are now overreaching."  He said "both sides need to come to the middle of the road."  West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, among a dozen bipartisan senators working with Republican Sen. Susan Collins on a plan, told Fox News, "I don't know what [Senate leadership] wants. We are in a crisis mode now."  On Monday, Manchin told Fox News that lawmakers "need to work more" on the Collins plan. He voiced dismay that Reid, the Senate majority leader, knocked down that plan on Saturday.  The Collins plan would have funded the government for six months, raised the debt limit through Jan. 31, and delayed the health care law's medical device tax.  As Reid dismissed the plan on Saturday, the dispute over spending levels escalated.  Republicans want to continue current spending at $986.7 billion and leave untouched the new round of cuts on Jan. 15 that would reduce the amount to $967 billion.  Democrats, though, want to figure out a way to undo the reductions, plus enact a long-term extension of the debt limit increase and a short-term spending bill to reopen the government.  Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, told reporters the two sides are roughly $70 billion apart, the difference between the $1.058 trillion Senate budget amount and the number envisioned by Republicans.  Republicans bristled at Democrats' demands. A House Republican leadership aide said Sunday that Reid "moved the goalposts" by trying to "violate" spending levels set in the 2011 Budget Control Act.  "It's time for Democrat leaders to take `yes' for an answer," Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said in a statement.  But Democrats denied they were trying to violate those levels.  A Senate Democratic leadership aide said "the suggestion that Democrats insist on breaking the budget caps is false and belied by the facts."  Essentially, Democrats argue that they would accept current spending levels for a short period -- just not as long as Collins proposed -- so they can have another go at the sequester cuts in the near future.  Unclear was whether any Senate deal would pass the Republican-controlled House by Thursday, though Senate Democrats were hoping  momentum and the debt-ceiling deadline would pressure House lawmakers.  The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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