House G.O.P. to Plan Next Step as Budget Clock Runs Down
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio. Getty Images

WASHINGTON — House Republicans will meet in a rare Saturday session as they plan their next move to keep the government open past midnight on Monday while extracting major concessions on President Obama's health care law. The Senate turned up the pressure on the House on Friday, passing a stopgap spending bill that would keep the government financed through Nov. 15 while leaving the health care law intact. Now, House Republicans must decide whether to accept the measure, attach minor changes to the health care law that could win Democratic support, or confront the Senate anew by again tying further government financing to a gutting of the law. Any move short of passing the Senate bill is likely to shut down the government, at least briefly, unless it is accompanied by a measure that would finance the government for at least a few days. That would allow the Republican to keep their struggle alive.

(Read more: Why markets should pray for a US government shutdown)

watch now

In his Saturday radio and Internet address, the president will accuse Republicans in the House of being "more concerned with appeasing an extreme faction of their party than working to pass a budget that creates new jobs or strengthens the middle class," according to a transcript released in advance. "And in the next couple days, these Republicans will have to decide whether to join the Senate and keep the government open, or create a crisis that will hurt people for the sole purpose of advancing their ideological agenda," he adds. "The American people have worked too hard to recover from crisis to see extremists in their Congress cause another one."

Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington, the chairwoman of the House Republican Conference, will use the Republican radio address on Saturday to shift the debate to another important deadline, Oct. 17, when Congress must raise the government's statutory borrowing limit or risk a potentially catastrophic default on the national debt.

More from The New York Times: U.S. and Iran Agree to Speed Talks Over Nuclear Dispute

Race to the End for 'Breaking Bad' Binge-Viewers

InKenya Attack, Narrow Escapes and Questions "The president is now demanding that we increase the debt limit without engaging in any kind of bipartisan discussions about addressing our spending problem," Ms. Rodgers said. "He wants to take the easy way out — exactly the kind of foolishness that got us here in the first place."

Congressional Republicans are waging a two-front political war: one with Mr. Obama and the Democrats, the other within their own ranks.

The House Republicans' meeting, which is to begin at noon, is intended to produce spending legislation that is coupled with Republican health care demands, and the measure would face a vote on Sunday. That would leave the Senate just one day to deal with the House legislation before much of the government closes down for lack of funds. Without unanimous support in the Senate, the rules of the chamber would never let any such measure pass that quickly.

watch now