WASHINGTON — President Obama summoned the Republican and Democratic leaders of Congress to the White House for an afternoon meeting Wednesday, the second day of the government shutdown, to urge the passage of measures financing the government and increasing the nation’s borrowing limit — without add-ons like a limitation on his health-insurance law.
It was to be the first such meeting since large portions of the government were forced to close at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, when the new fiscal year began without agreement on a stopgap spending measure, known as a continuing resolution, or C.R., that would finance the government until spending levels are set for the new year.
“The president will urge the House to pass the clean C.R. to reopen the government, and call on Congress to act to raise the debt ceiling to pay the bills we have already incurred and avoid devastating consequences on our economy,” an administration official said.
Invited were Speaker John A. Boehner, Republican of Ohio; Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the House Democratic minority leader; Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader; and Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader.
Also on Wednesday, the House will vote on bills to reopen national parks and museums, restart veterans’ programs, finance medical research, pay the National Guard and Reserves, and cover services in the District of Columbia.
The Republicans suffered embarrassing losses on Tuesday night when three bills — to finance veterans’ programs, national parks and museums, and services in Washington — failed to get the two-thirds majority required to pass under fast-track procedures.
The list of federal programs being singled out for financing is expanding. Democrats criticized House Republicans on Tuesday for choosing national parks over cancer research at the National Institutes of Health. The response: a measure to finance the health institutes, too. Congress had already passed legislation to make sure active duty uniformed military forces would continue to be paid. Criticized for leaving out the National Guard and Reserves, Republicans added them to the favored list.
The White House has already threatened a veto.
“Consideration of appropriations bills in a piecemeal fashion is not a serious or responsible way to run the United States Government,” the White House budget office said. “Instead of opening up a few Government functions, the House of Representatives should reopen all of the Government.”
Aides to the Republican leadership said the bills would be introduced on Wednesday under ordinary rules that require only simple majorities, and they should easily pass. But Democrats are likely to be granted procedural votes of their own, which would be an opportunity to test how many Republicans would defy their leadership and vote to reopen the entire government without crippling Mr. Obama’s health care law — the standoff that shut down the government.
As public anger grows, more Republicans are coming forward to call for such a rebellion.
“The frustration and anger over Obamacare is being interpreted to be an all-or-nothing calculation,” said Representative Patrick Meehan, Republican of Pennsylvania, who now favors a simple stopgap spending measure to reopen the government.
“People are very worried about Obamacare,” he said. “Some of its pieces are problematic. “But they want us to come here and work on problems across America, and we can’t get to doing that if both sides are dug in.”
Democrats face pressure of their own to drop their stance of approving a spending bill only if it is free of policy prescriptions. Senate Democratic leaders say they plan to immediately kill all three of the piecemeal House bills, arguing that they will not be forced to choose between financing veterans’ programs or cancer research.
Mr. Reid, the majority leader, said Mr. Boehner should “stop the games, think about the people he is hurting, and let the House pass the Senate’s bill to reopen the government with Republican and Democratic votes.”
Republicans said they planned to make Democrats pay a political price for voting against the bill financing veterans’ programs.
“In what can only be described as a disgraceful partisan maneuver, just after most of them voted for a government shutdown, House Democrats have now chosen to turn their backs on America’s veterans,” Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana said after 164 Democrats voted against the veterans bill, just enough to keep it from passing.
All three measures won significant support but still failed because of the two-thirds rule. The veterans bill, which would finance veterans’ disability payments, education benefits, job training and home loans, failed 264-183.
Another bill to reopen national parks, the Smithsonian and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, and the United States Holocaust Museum, failed 252-176. And a bill to help the District of Columbia provide services fell 265-163.
Democrats say they will not negotiate any changes to the health care law, nor will they reopen the government piece by piece. To do so, they said, would only encourage Republican brinkmanship.
While some Republicans are ready to cave in, the House’s most ardent conservatives said they could win the battle for public opinion and, eventually, the war over the health care law, whose insurance exchanges opened for enrollment on Tuesday.
“I’m optimistic,” said Representative Tim Huelskamp, Republican of Kansas. “At the end of the day, the American people usually get their way.”
To many Senate Republicans, the House conservatives’ position has become mystifying. In a meeting of Senate Republicans, Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee rose to ask how the party would respond if it controlled the White House and the Senate and a Democratic House insisted it would not finance the government unless Washington rolled back laws hampering unions.
Added Senator Richard M. Burr, Republican of North Carolina: “All the cards are held on one side of this.”
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