The other side is making similar noises – vague, but hopeful.
Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.), chairman of the Energy and Power Subcommittee, told POLITICO he has also “heard there was a study for costs, but we’re still pushing our greenhouse gas bill.”
On EPA greenhouse gas riders, he said, “All I know is, it’s not an issue anymore. I guess that means it’s not being pushed or that it was changed in some way that was acceptable.”
It’s also unclear whether any of the other dozen or so anti-environmental cuts we reported on Wednesday will be included in the final budget.
The situation remains fluid. We’ll keep you posted…
UPDATE: 7 pm EST
At this hour, there are rumblings that the Title X/Planned Parenthood hostage may be about to be released.
Chuck Todd reports at NBC that “One GOP source says “the issue has been resolved,” while a Democratic source describes the talks as “almost there” on the so-called ‘rider’ that has proven to be the biggest and last stumbling block to an agreement.”
You may well ask why the GOP brought the government to the brink of shutdown over a $200 million that doesn’t fund abortion, but in part funds Planned Parenthood’s services for women’s health issues like mamograms, pap smears and of course, birth control.
One possibility: The Tea Partiers were screaming for weeks that they’d settle for nothing less than $100 billion in budget cuts. The Democrats would never agree to that. At Slate, Dave Weigel reminds us that Paul Ryan’s original budget back in February called for $74 billion in cuts (really $32 billion, because we’re halfway through fiscal 2011 already).
But the Democrats agreed to that $32 billion earlier in the week… and now it wasn’t enough. In the last week, the numbers have ratcheted up to almost $38 billion (which prorates to $78 billion from Obama’s 2011 budget request), and that’s still not enough for the Tea Party.
But given a few days to jump up and down and get all excited about abortion by the House leadership, they seem to have shut up about deficits. So maybe that worked…
Meanwhile, the headline over at Fox News is “Harry Reid Holding Troop Pay Hostage for Planned Parenthood Lobbyist Money“.
UPDATE: 8:30 pm EST
The National Journal is reporting the leaders are meeting to hammer out the deal:
Numerous GOP and Democratic sources on and off Capitol Hill tell National Journal that the outline of the deal is as follows: up to $39 billion in cuts from the 2010 budget, $514 billion in spending for the defense budget covering the remainder of this fiscal year, a GOP agreement to abandon controversial policy riders dealing with Planned Parenthood and the EPA, and an agreement to pass a “bridge” continuing resolution late Friday night to keep the government operating while the deal is written in bill form.
- GOP Votes to Repeal Climate Science
- Obama says he’ll veto anti-EPA bill (but not the budget cuts)
- EPA Vote: Senate Democrats about to screw things up on climate change again
- Climate Change: GOP Goes After EPA
- “Party of No” finally says yes – to more greenhouse gases
- Obama’s Energy/Climate Change Czar is Leaving the White House
- Newt Gingrich: Eliminate the EP
- Senate votes today on worst budget for the environment in 40 years
(Image of Capitol Building plus tulips 
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About Jeremy Bloom
Legal, Safe and Rare
A fourteen-trillion deficit
Is nothing at to sneer,
But in these times of hope and change
We think we’ve been austere.
Another one-point-five-trillion
And then we’ll start to pare:
We want to keep our budget cuts
All legal, safe and rare.
We know the voters turned us out
The last election day,
And gave the House to radicals,
Hell-bent on foul play.
But voters took a different tack
And did the Senate spare,
So we just treat Republicans
As legal, safe and rare.
Though consequences are to flow
Beyond the ballot box,
In truth we don’t much give a damn
For populi’s clear vox.
So let those new House members
Pass all the bills they dare;
Their chances in the Upper House
Are legal, safe and rare.
And if the House’s budget cuts
Are aimed at NPR,
We’ll brand the cuts extremist hate;
We’ll paint the cuts bizarre.
And if Planned Parenthood should fall
Into the budget snare,
Abortion’s kept, we’ll say, by us
As legal, safe and rare.
Here’s hoping never comes the day
The public starts to seek,
The truth behind our fresh facade
And media technique.
For if they do we run the risk
They may become aware:
Few words can mask the truth as well
As legal, safe and rare.
Comment from Malhavoc430 at Reddit:
The US budget is like a 1st grader playing Oregon Trail. Spend all the money on ammunition so you can shoot at stuff, then wonder why your wagon is falling apart and everyone is dying of dysentery