FOXNews.com: Waiting Game: Lawmakers, Obama dig in amid partial gov't suspension

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Waiting Game: Lawmakers, Obama dig in amid partial gov't suspension Oct 1st 2013, 18:35 Published October 01, 2013 FoxNews.com Lawmakers prepared for a potentially drawn-out stalemate over the budget, as the first day of a partial suspension of government services brought officials no closer to an agreement.  A senior member of the House Republican leadership told Fox Business Network on Tuesday that the standoff could last two weeks.  In the House, a new effort was underway to make the situation more tolerable. Lawmakers prepared to push a series of emergency funding bills meant to pry open parts of the government whose services were affected by the impasse.  One bill would ensure funding goes to the National Park Service -- a bid to reopen the closed parks and monuments that have become perhaps the most visible sign of the government slimdown.  Another would ensure the continuation of veterans benefits through the Department of Veterans Affairs; the third would allow the municipal government of the District of Columbia to function.  The House could vote on the measures later Tuesday evening.  Meanwhile, the two chambers once again tried in vain to reach a budget resolution. Shortly after midnight, the House endorsed an approach that delays the federal health care law's individual mandate while prohibiting lawmakers, their staff and top administration officials from getting government subsidies for their health care. They formally urged the Senate to form a conference committee -- a bicameral committee where lawmakers from both chambers would meet to resolve the differences between the warring pieces of legislation.  Meeting Tuesday morning, the Senate rejected the proposal, in a party-line, 54-46 vote.  Both sides dug in, with Republicans insisting that any spending bill include provisions to chip away at ObamaCare, and Democrats refusing to allow it.  Both sides were hard at work blaming the other for the state of affairs.  "It's time for Republicans to stop obsessing over old battles. I mean, I say to my Republican friends, ObamaCare is over. It's passed, it's the law," Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid said.  President Obama, speaking from the Rose Garden Tuesday afternoon, tried to put pressure on Republicans to allow a "clean" budget bill.  "Republicans in the House of Representatives refused to fund the government unless we defunded or dismantled the Affordable Care Act. They've shut down the government over an ideological crusade to deny affordable health insurance to millions of Americans. In other words they demanded ransom just for doing their job," Obama said.  He noted the GOP did not succeed in shutting down ObamaCare, a large part of which opened officially on Tuesday.  Elsewhere in Washington, House Republicans were pressuring Democratic senators to meet them at the negotiating table to hash out a budget package.  The House appointed "conferees" overnight who would -- if the Senate agrees -- participate in a conference committee to craft a budget bill. Those GOP representatives held a press conference Tuesday to note that Democrats were nowhere to be found at that negotiating table.  "All of us here (are) sitting at a table waiting for the Senate Democrats to join us so we can begin to resolve our differences," House Republican Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., said.  "The way to resolve our differences is to sit down and talk. And as you can see, there's no one here on the other side of the table," he said.

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