A deadline looming, Congress' top Democrat accused Republicans on Friday of risking a government shutdown because they want to make it harder "for women to get cancer screenings." 
 
 President Barack Obama speaks at the White House in Washington, after meeting with House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., regarding the budget and possible... (Associated Press) 
 
 The U.S. Capitol is illuminated at night as Congress continues to work to avert a government shutdown on Capitol Hill Thursday, April 7, 2011 in Washington.(AP Photo/Alex Brandon) (Associated Press) 
 
 Justin Castro, a National Park Service employee, is pictured during an interview at his jobsite, the Oklahoma City National Memorial, in Oklahoma City, Thursday, April 7, 2011. President Barack Obama... (Associated Press) 
 
 House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio listens at left, as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nev. speaks to reporters outside the White House in Washington, Thursday, April 7, 2011, after their meeting... (Associated Press) 
 
 From left, Vice President Joe Biden, Chief of Staff Bill Daley and White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, listen to President Barack Obama speak at the White House in Washington, after meeting with House... (Associated Press) 
 
 President Barack Obama walks to the podium to speaks to reporters at the White House in Washington after meeting with House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.,... (Associated Press) 
 
 Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid unleashed his attack as his main antagonist in long-running negotiations, Speaker John Boehner, said spending cuts _not social issues _ was blocking agreement to prevent a shutdown at midnight. 
 
 The maneuvering unfolded as President Barack Obama canceled a trip to Indianapolis and spoke in separate phone calls with Reid and Boehner. 
 
 "Discussions between the leaders and the White House aimed at reaching a budget agreement are continuing," White House press secretary Jay Carney said in a written statement. 
 
 "I assure you, these are not unresolvable issues," added Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. 
 
 Obama, Reid and Boehner met at the White House on Thursday evening for the third time in two days, and their aides struggled without success to reach agreement in middle-of-the-night talks in the Capitol. 
 
 Republicans have been seeking $40 billion in cuts, as well as several other provisions to advance the conservative agenda backed by a rank and file that includes dozens of first-termers elected with the support of tea party activists. 
 
 As the Senate opened for business, Reid said the two sides had reached agreement on $38 billion in spending cuts and the only hangup was a Republican demand to cut a federal program that provides women's health and family planning services. 
 
 "They are willing to throw women under the bus, even if it means they'll shut down the government," he said. 
 
 "Republican leaders in the House have only a few hours left to look in the mirror, snap out of it and realize how positively shameful that would be." 
 
 But Boehner said the two sides were "close to a resolution" on the non-spending issues, and there was "only one reason that we do not have an agreement as yet, and that issue is spending." 
 
 "When will the White House and when will Senate Democrats get serious about cutting federal spending?" he asked rhetorically. 
 
 Boehner urged Obama to reconsider a veto threat against legislation to keep the government open for one additional week while negotiators continue working on a deal to fund federal programs through Sept. 30. 
 
 That measure includes $12 billion in spending cuts, and provides enough funds to keep the Pentagon in operation through Sept. 30. 
 
 Barring an agreement or perhaps another temporary bill to keep the government operating, the shutdown of most of the government would begin at midnight. Many essential workers, such as mail carriers, air traffic controllers and the military, would stay on the job. 
 
 Obama said ominously on Friday night that the machinery of a shutdown was already in motion. 
 
 "I expect an answer in the morning," Obama told reporters Thursday evening as representatives from the White House and Capitol Hill plunged ahead with negotiations into the night. 
 
 The aides were trying to cobble together a deal on how much federal spending to slash, where to cut it and what caveats to attach as part of a bill to fund the government through Sept. 30. A temporary federal spending measure expires at midnight Friday. 
 
 As the pressure mounted, Obama abruptly postponed plans to promote his agenda in Indiana on Friday. 
 
 For a nation eager to trim to federal spending but also weary of Washington bickering, the spending showdown had real implications. 
 
 A closure would mean the furloughs of hundreds of thousands of workers and the services they provide, from processing many tax refunds to approving business loans. Medical research would be disrupted, national parks would close and most travel visa and passport services would stop, among many others. 
 
 Obama spoke after a double-barreled day of meetings with Boehner and Reid. The three have held four such meetings this week. 
 
 Throughout Thursday, the president, Reid and Boehner bargained and blustered by turns, struggling to settle their differences while maneuvering to avoid any political blame if they failed. 
 
 With the economy just now beginning to create jobs in large numbers, the president said a shutdown would damage the recovery. 
 
 "For us to go backwards because Washington couldn't get its act together is just unacceptable," he said. 
 
 But agreement remained elusive. 
 
 Republicans passed legislation through the House at midday to fund the Pentagon for six months, cut $12 billion in domestic spending and keep the federal bureaucracy humming for an additional week. 
 
 "There is absolutely no policy reason for the Senate to not follow the House in taking these responsible steps to support our troops and to keep our government open," Boehner said. 
 
 Obama flashed a veto threat even before the bill passed on a 247-181, mostly party-line vote. The administration issued a statement calling it "a distraction from the real work" of agreeing on legislation to cover the six months left in the current fiscal year, and there was no indication Reid would allow a vote on it. 
 
 As they left the White House after the evening meeting, Reid and Boehner issued a brief written statement that said they had narrowed their disagreements and said they would "continue to work through the night to attempt to resolve" the remaining ones. 
 
 On Friday morning, House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said that talks have progressed "70 percent of the way on the numbers," but said the two sides are still squabbling about Republican riders to the legislation that would change abortion and environmental policy. 
 
 "There's no deal yet," he said on NBC's "Today" show. Hoyer blamed Republicans, saying that "when we were in charge of the House and had disagreements with George Bush, we compromised." He said he's "embarrassed" that Congress has put the country on the brink of shutdown, calling it "inappropriate." 
 
 Republicans want deeper spending cuts than the Democrats favor and also are pressing for provisions to cut off federal funds to Planned Parenthood and stop the Environmental Protection Agency from issuing numerous anti-pollution regulations. 
 
 "They're difficult issues. They're important to both sides and so I'm not yet prepared to express wild optimism," the president said. 
 
 For all the brinksmanship _ and the promise of more in the Senate on Friday _ there was agreement that a shutdown posed risks to an economy still recovering from the worst recession in decades. 
 
 The political fallout was less predictable, especially with control of government divided and dozens of new tea party-backed Republicans part of a new GOP majority in the House. Twin government shutdowns in the mid-1990s damaged Republicans, then new to power in Congress, and helped President Bill Clinton win re-election in 1996. 
 
 This time, individual lawmakers worked to insulate themselves from any political damage. Sens. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Ben Nelson, D-Neb., both seeking new terms in 2012, became the latest to announce they would not accept their congressional salary during any shutdown. "If retroactive pay is later approved, I'll direct my part to the U.S. Treasury," Nelson said. Some two dozen senators of both parties scurried to make similar pledges. 
 
 One day before the shutdown deadline, events unfolded in rapid succession. 
 
 In a shift in position, Obama said he would sign a short-term measure keeping the government running even without an agreement to give negotiations more time to succeed. 
 
 At the White House, a senior budget official said the impact of a shutdown "will be immediately felt on the economy." 
 
 For all the tough talk, it did not appear the two parties were too far from a deal. 
 
 Officials in both parties said that in the past day or so, Democrats had tacitly agreed to slightly deeper spending cuts than they had been willing to embrace, at least $34.5 billion in reductions. 
 
 Agreement on that point was conditional on key details, but it was a higher total than the $33 billion that had been under consideration. 
 
 It also was less than the $40 billion Boehner floated earlier in the week _ a number that Republicans indicated was flexible. 
 
 There also were hints of Republican flexibility on the ban they were seeking to deny federal funds to Planned Parenthood. Officials said that in talks at the White House that stretched on after midnight on Wednesday, Republicans had suggested giving state officials discretion in deciding how to distribute family planning funds that now go directly from the federal government to organizations such as Planned Parenthood. 
 
 That would presumably leave a decision on funding to governors, many of whom oppose abortion, and sever the financial link between the federal government and an organization that Republicans assail as the country's biggest provider of abortions. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Associated Press writers David Espo, Jim Kuhnhenn and Darlene Superville contributed to this report. ||||| Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Friday afternoon that he is in talks with Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to get a short-term budget deal to the floor to stave off a government shutdown. 
 
 Reid said there would be competition for what bill gets considered, with a “number of competing continuing resolution” requests on the table. Because the clock runs out at midnight, Reid would need a time agreement — what Reid referred to a “unanimous consent request” — to cut through the normal procedural red tape. 
 
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 The negotiation between the two Senate leaders is in addition to Reid’s ongoing talks with the House GOP, which still are at an impasse just hours before the government is set to run out of funds. 
 
 Reid said Friday afternoon the Democrats’ proposed “clean” extension would maintain the levels of the continuing resolution set to expire Friday at midnight, a measure that contained $6 billion in cuts over three weeks. Reid added that it also would include funding through the year for the military. 
 
 Republicans in the House passed a one-week measure Thursday that would slash another $12 billion in spending and fund the Defense Department for the rest of the fiscal year. 
 
 Without securing a time agreement on any bill, stopgap or otherwise, the government is likely to shutdown because 30 hours are required between a procedural vote to open debate and a vote for final passage. 
 
 “If we’re very close [to a broader budget deal], we will figure out a way to keep the government running. If we’re very close, within an inch or two of an agreement,” Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) told reporters after a press conference featuring the entire caucus. 
 
 The Senate Democrats’ move toward a temporary bill Friday is a shift in strategy from earlier this week, when leaders insisted they only wanted a long-term deal. President Barack Obama had called the short-term approach a “distraction.” 
 
 By Thursday night, No. 2 Senate Democrat Dick Durbin placed the House-approved bill that funds the government for a week and the Department of Defense for a year on the Senate calendar while closing the floor. The formal action was taken when Reid (D-Nev.) was at the White House meeting with the president and Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio). 
 
 Now that the House-approved bill is on the docket, Reid could offer the Democrats’ bill as an amendment in the form of a substitute, essentially replacing the House legislation with his, passing it and sending it back to the lower chamber. 
 
 Congressional Democrats and the White House have said emphatically and repeatedly that the House Republican short-term offering is unpalatable. It includes a policy rider limiting funds for abortions in the District, but GOP aides are quick to note that measure had been included in another omnibus package Democrats voted for when it first cleared Congress. Earlier Thursday, the administration issued an official policy advisement stating it “strongly opposed” the GOP measure and would recommend the president veto it if it were to make it to his desk. 
 
 A clean version of a short-term spending bill, though, could get enough support to pass the Senate and put the pressure back on the House, if approved, to keep the government open. 
 
 When speaking to reporters Thursday afternoon, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) said he could support another temporary stopgap measure, breaking slightly from the message emerging from the White House and leadership. 
 
 “If it were a clean one, absolutely, but clean. No games,” Kerry said. 
 
 After breaking from his third meeting in 24 hours with Reid and Boehner, Obama said he expected an “answer” Friday morning on what the status of Congressional talks is and whether shutdown will be avoided. 
 
 “My hope is, is that I’ll be able to announce to the American people sometime relatively early in the day that a shutdown has been averted…That’s what I hope to be able to announce tomorrow,” Obama said Thursday night in the White House briefing room. “There’s no certainty yet, but I expect an answer sometime early in the day.” ||||| A visibly frustrated President Barack Obama emerged from a failed meeting on a budget deal Tuesday and said he would demand daily sessions with House Speaker John Boehner until an agreement was hammered out to prevent a U.S. government shutdown at week's end. 
 
 House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio walks past media after a closed conference meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, April 5, 2011. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) (Associated Press) 
 
 House Speaker John Boehner Ohio smiles from the back of an elevator after attending a closed conference meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, April 5, 2011. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) (Associated Press) 
 
 House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio follows a staff member as he walks past media after a closed conference meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, April 5, 2011. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) (Associated Press) 
 
 Obama spoke not long after Boehner's office issued a statement that insisted the two sides remained far apart and that Republicans had never, as the White House contends, agreed on $33 billion in cuts to the federal spending allotment for the remaining six months of the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30. 
 
 Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Boehner and Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid met in the White House Tuesday as the clock ticked toward a midnight Friday expiration of the government's spending authority. 
 
 "We are closer than we have ever been to an agreement. There is no reason why we should not get an agreement," Obama said in a surprise appearance in the White House reporters briefing room. 
 
 The president said Boehner and Reid were meeting later Tuesday, but if that session produced no agreement he would summon both men back to the White House Wednesday and daily thereafter, if necessary. 
 
 "Myself, Joe Biden, my team we are prepared to meet for as long as possible to get this resolved," Obama said. 
 
 Obama had barely finished speaking when Boehner strode before microphones to insist that the White House and Senate Democrats bow to demands for deeper cuts. Boehner is under extreme pressure from newly elected House members, many with allegiance to the ultraconservative tea party, to slash spending, the size of government and lower taxes. 
 
 Short of a long-term deal, Boehner has proposed an agreement that would keep the government running for one more week and cut another $12 billion in spending. Boehner has already orchestrated action by Congress to pass a pair of stopgap bills, so far cutting $10 billion from an estimated $1.2 trillion budget to fund the day-to-day operations of government through the fiscal accounting period. 
 
 Obama said he would only accept another short-term funding extension, of two or three days, to get a longer-term deal through Congress. But he ruled out a longer extension to allow negotiations to continue. 
 
 "That is not a way to run a government. I cannot have our agencies making plans based on two week budgets," Obama said. "What we are not going to do is once again put off something that should have been done months ago." 
 
 Boehner said Republicans "will not be put in a box" of accepting options they refuse to endorse. 
 
 Democrats accuse Republicans of pushing for harmful spending cuts and attaching a social policy agenda to the must-pass spending bill. Boehner counters that the White House is pressing gimmicky budget cuts. 
 
 As a government shutdown appeared increasingly inevitable, the White House has begun advising government agencies on the proper steps in preparation for a shutdown of the government. Republicans on Monday disclosed plans to instruct lawmakers "on how the House would operate in the event Senate Democrats shut down the government." 
 
 And in a memo to agency officials, the deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget, Jeffrey Zients, urged agency heads to refine and update contingency plans in the event negotiators don't strike a deal by Friday's deadline. 
 
 Boehner's one-week plan could reassure tea party-backed lawmakers who are among the most vocal in seeking to reduce the size and scope of the government. It could also put pressure on Democrats and the White House to offer greater spending cuts. 
 
 But there's no visible movement on an impasse over Republican policy riders attacking Obama's health care and financial reform laws, cutting taxpayer funds to Planned Parenthood and reversing a host of Obama's environmental policies. 
 
 On a separate long-term track, Republicans controlling the House have fashioned plans to slash the budget deficit by more than $5 trillion over the upcoming decade, combining unprecedented spending cuts with a fundamental restructuring of taxpayer-financed health care for the elderly and the poor. 
 
 House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan unveiled the Republican budget blueprint Tuesday morning just as Boehner headed to the White House. 
 
 Ryan's program includes a controversial proposal to convert the traditional Medicare health care program for the aged into a system by which private insurers would operate plans approved by the federal government. 
 
 Current Medicare beneficiaries or workers age 55 and older would stay in the existing system. 
 
 At the same time, Republicans propose to sharply cut projected spending on the Medicaid state-federal health program for the poor and disabled and transform it into a block grant program that gives governors far less money than under current estimates, but considerably more flexibility.
– President Obama sounded like an impatient parent today as the threat of a government shutdown grew larger. Admonishing lawmakers to "act like grownups," the president said John Boehner and Harry Reid would meet again later this afternoon, reports Politico. If nothing comes of it, Obama said he'll order them back at it again tomorrow. "We are closer than we have ever been to an agreement," said Obama. "There is no reason why we should not get an agreement." Boehner spoke immediately afterward, notes AP, and said Republicans would continue to "fight for the largest cuts possible." It's possible another stopgap spending measure can keep government open if no deal is in place by Friday, but the president said he will accept one only if it's good for just two or three days.