WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2013 | LUDINGTON DAILY NEWS | B9www.ludingtondailynews.com

BY ALAN FRAMASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate leaders are optimis-tic about forging an elev-enth-hour bipartisan deal preventing a possible fed-eral default and ending the partial government shut-down after Republican di-visions forced GOP leaders to drop efforts to ram their own version through the House.

Pressured by the calen-dar, financial markets and public opinion polls, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Minority Lead-er Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., were hoping to shake hands on an agreement Wednes-day and, if possible, hold votes later in the day.

Driving their urgency were oft-repeated Obama administration warnings that the government would exhaust its borrowing au-thority Thursday and risk a federal default that could unhinge the world econo-my. Lawmakers feared that spooked financial markets would plunge unless a deal was at hand and that voters would take it out on incum-bents in next year’s con-gressional elections.

“People are so tired of this,” President Barack Obama said Tuesday in an interview with Los Angeles TV station KMEX.

U.S. stock futures were

rising early Wednesday amid strong corporate earn-ings and lingering hope for a deal to head off a gov-ernment default. But there were also dire warnings from the financial world a day after the Fitch cred-it rating agency said it was reviewing its AAA rating on U.S. government debt for possible downgrade.

John Chambers, chair-man of Standard & Poor’s Sovereign Debt Commit-tee, told “CBS This Morn-ing” on Wednesday that a U.S. government default on its debts would be “much

worse than Lehman Broth-ers,” the investment firm whose 2008 collapse led to the global financial crisis.

Billionaire investor War-ren Buffett told CNBC he doesn’t think the federal government will fail to pay its bills, but “if it does hap-pen, it’s a pure act of idio-cy.”

Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, a tea party favorite, said he was not worried about the prospect of a U.S. default.

“We are going to service our debt,” he told CNN. “But

I am concerned about all the rhetoric around this ....I’m concerned that it will scare the markets.”

Aides to Reid and McCo-nnell said the two men had resumed talks, including a Tuesday night conver-sation, and were hopeful about striking an agreement that could pass both hous-es.

It was expected to mir-ror a deal the leaders had neared Monday. That agree-ment was described as extending the debt limit

through Feb. 7, immediately reopening the government fully and keeping agencies running until Jan. 15 — leaving lawmakers clashing over the same disputes in the near future.

It also set a mid-Decem-ber deadline for biparti-san budget negotiators to report on efforts to reach compromise on longer-term issues like spending cuts. And it likely would require the Obama administration to certify that it can verify the income of people who qualify for federal subsi-dies for medical insurance under the 2010 health care law.

But that emerging Senate pact was put on hold Tues-day, an extraordinary day that highlighted how unruly rank-and-file House Repub-licans can be, even when the stakes are high. Facing sol-id Democratic opposition, House Speaker John Boeh-ner, R-Ohio, tried in vain to write legislation that would satisfy GOP lawmakers, es-pecially conservatives.

Boehner crafted two ver-sions of the bill, but neither made it to a House vote be-cause both faced certain de-feat. Working against him was word during the day from the influential group Heritage Action for America that his legislation was not conservative enough — a

worrisome threat for many GOP lawmakers whose big-gest electoral fears are of primary challenges from the right.

The last of Boehner’s two bills had the same dates as the emerging Senate plan on the debt limit and shut-down.

But it also blocked feder-al payments for the presi-dent, members of Congress and other officials to help pay for their health care coverage. And it prevented the Obama administration from shifting funds among different accounts — as past Treasury secretaries have done — to let the gov-ernment keep paying bills briefly after the federal debt limit has been reached.

Boehner’s inability to produce a bill that could pass his own chamber like-ly means he will have to let the House vote on a Sen-ate compromise, even if that means it would pass with strong Democratic and weak GOP support. House Republican leaders have tried to avoid that sce-nario for fear that it would threaten their leadership, and some Republicans wor-ried openly about that.

“Of all the damage to be done politically here, one of the greatest concerns I have is that somehow John Boeh-ner

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Senators seek budget deal, House GOP effort flops

J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE | AP PHOTOWith time growing desperately short for Congress to prevent a threatened Treasury default and stop a partial government shutdown, a group of ministers, the Circle of Protection, pray at dawn at the Capitol today to draw attention to lawmakers that political divisiveness hurts the most vulnerable Americans. From right are Kathy Saile, Gary Cook, Rev. Jim Wallis, and Major Carole Busroe of the Salvation Army.