Federal Government shutdown enters day 3

Not much news to report other than the shutdown powwow at the White House Wednesday afternoon ended in stalemate.

Report from the New York Times:

Day 3 of the government shutdown will dawn as Day 2 did, with neither President Obama and the Democrats nor the Republicans backing down and with the House sticking to a legislative strategy that has so far been fruitless.

After a private meeting among President Obama and four Congressional leaders ended Wednesday night without a break in the budget standoff, House Republicans on Thursday are expected to continue their attempts to pass piecemeal spending bills that would reopen sections of the government, one program at a time.

But Democrats in the Senate have made it clear that they are unlikely to approve any House proposal unless it is a spending bill that would keep money flowing to the government with no strings attached. And since the Republicans have not abandoned their insistence that any budget measure include language defunding the president’s health care law, the government shutdown continues.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid did have a testy exchange with CNN’s Dana Bash on Wednesday. Reid was being questioned about why the Senate rejected funding for the National Institute of Health to keep clinical cancer research trials for children operating during the shutdown. Here is video of the question and Reid’s now infamous response:

Which side (if either) has your best interests in mind in the short and long term?