Washington (CNN) - With Senate negotiators reportedly close to reaching a deal to reopen the federal government, Rep. Charlie Dent, R-Pennsylvania, told CNN’s Jake Tapper late Tuesday evening that he believes Speaker John Boehner will have no choice but to bypass normal procedures and bring the in-the-works bill to the House floor.
"I believe that John Boehner will likely be in a position where he will have to essentially pass the bill that is negotiated between Sens. McConnell and Reid," Dent said.
FULL STORY(CNN) - Joe Lhota is the GOP nominee in New York City's mayoral election, but Tuesday night he said he's far from a national Republican candidate.
Lhota, a deputy mayor under former GOP Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former head of the city transit authority, faced off against his Democratic opponent, New York City Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, in the first of three debates leading up to the November mayoral election. The two men are seeking to succeed outgoing three-term Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
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(CNN) - A dramatic day began in the Senate and ended there following a series of excruciating twists and turns in the House.
Speaker John Boehner failed to round up enough support to pass a leadership plan to end the shutdown and avert a possible debt default, so it was never put to a vote.
Emboldened conservatives want more substance, and Boehner instead kicked it all to the Senate, which had suspended its own talks on a compromise to first see if anything would pass the House.
President Barack Obama said Boehner can’t control his caucus while the President had House Democrats over to the White House where Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said her conference was buttoned up tight in opposition to the Republican plan.
As night fell and the House initiative fell apart, Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell resumed talks on their effort that supporters hope will garner enough bipartisan backing to ultimately pass and pressure reciprocal action in the House – with Democrats and a strong enough helping of Republicans going along.
But things must happen quickly and there’s new and serious pressure bearing down on the Capitol. The Obama administration says it runs out of borrowing authority on Thursday and Wall Street is now pretty spooked. Stocks snapped a win streak and a major bond rating house, Fitch, is talking downgrade of the gold-plated U.S. credit rating unless Congress acts immediately.
Here’s what you need to know:
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Stephanie Cutter debates with Rep. Steve King and Rep. Donna Edwards about Congress doing its job regarding the shutdown.
(CNN) - Shortly after Republican leaders of the House of Representatives canceled plans for a Tuesday night vote, the two top figures in the Senate rebooted their own talks aimed at ending the U.S. budget standoff.
Spokesmen for Democratic Sen. Harry Reid and GOP Sen. Mitch McConnell - their chamber's majority leader and minority leader, respectively - said Tuesday night that they restarted negotiations aimed at creating legislation that would fully reopen the government and raise the nation's debt ceiling.
FULL STORY(CNN) - President Barack Obama says negotiations to end the partial government shutdown and extend the nation's debt limit have been made tougher because House Speaker John Boehner "can't control his caucus."
In an interview Tuesday with CNN affiliate WABC-TV, the President said "him negotiating with me isn't necessarily good for the extreme faction in his caucus. It weakens him, so there have been repeated situations where we have agreements. Then he goes back and it turns out that he can't control his caucus."
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(CNN) –- Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the putative frontrunner for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, delivered a paid speech Tuesday to a trade association that strongly opposed President Barack Obama’s health care reform law, the signature achievement of his time in office and a long-sought goal of progressive movement.
Clinton spoke to roughly 3,000 members of the National Association of Convenience Stores, which is holding its annual conference in Atlanta.
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(CNN) - Nearly a hundred veterans from several dozen military coalitions converged at the National World War II Memorial in Washington on Tuesday to protest the partial shutdown of the government that they say could put more than 5.5 million service members at risk of not receiving their monthly benefits by November 1.
Flanked by veterans from various wars, Garry Augustine, executive director of Disabled American Veterans, said from the podium: "Our message to the President and Congress (is), defaulting on not paying veteran's benefits is not an option. We are here to tell them it's time for the country to fulfill our promises to the men and women who served."
FULL STORYCNN's GUT CHECK | for October 15, 2013 | 5 p.m.
– n. a pause to assess the state, progress or condition of the political news cycle
BREAKING: AMERICA’S RATING ON WARNING… Fitch warns of possible downgrade of U.S. AAA credit rating, citing risk of default from 'political brinkmanship:' “The U.S. risks being forced to incur widespread delays of payments to suppliers and employees, as well as social security payments to citizens – all of which would damage the perception of U.S. sovereign creditworthiness and the economy.”
HOUSE ‘EXPECTING’ TO VOTE TONIGHT: House Speaker John Boehner was "struggling" to come up with enough votes to pass a GOP counter-proposal to the Senate plan, a House Republican leadership aide and other sources told CNN's Dana Bash and Deirdre Walsh.
WHAT IS IN THE HOUSE GOP PLAN: House GOP sources say the they plan to bring a bill to the floor tonight that would include the following provisions: fund the government until Dec. 15 (a month earlier than a plan the Senate is discussing); raise the debt limit until Feb. 7 and not allow the Treasury Secretary to use extraordinary measures to extent that deadline; prohibit federal health care subsidies for members of Congress, their staff, the president, vice president, and administration officials and staff.
Washington (CNN) - Rep. Charles Rangel on Tuesday compared what he considers the most intransigent members of the House Republican caucus with the Confederates of the American Civil War.
The last-minute holdups on a deal over funding the government and raising the debt ceiling, the longtime Democrat from New York City told CNN's Ashleigh Banfield, are not coming from conflict between Republicans and Democrats.
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