the president, moderate democrats in the senate, and republicans in the house, is just funding the government for the rest of the year. the republicans want to cut $61 billion out now, the clock has run down on that, there have been some short-term cuts, but that still leaves more than $50 billion in cuts they want to make. if we re spending all that money, fighting mommar qaddafi, there s less places to easily trim the money. so that actually comp claits it. and further complicates it and further complicating it is this war is sowing deep divisions inside the party and straining relationships with republicans because since the president didn t consult with congress about it, their nerves are pretty raw, they re pretty angry at the president about this. jenna: quickly, what are your sources telling new do you actually think we re going to get a budget this year? i think where we re probably headed now is the president is going to have to weigh in, house republicans are waiting for
digital politics editor. chris, considering that s happened in the middle east over the last several weeks, has that served as a reality check to maybe promote compromise in d.c.? or has it done just the opposite and moved the sides further apart? yeah, i think you re probably closer on the lad der latter one, jenna. you need to come down here so you can be reminded of just how deep the divisions are. jenna: is that an official invitation, cries? we absolutely need you here. you have to see how terrible it can be on capitol hill so that you know that even a war or, as the white house is calling it, a kinetic military operation, is not enough to bring people together on a short-term spending bill. jenna: what seems to be the holdup? is there something new, or is it the same old stuff we ve seen? well, in fact, the war actually comp claits it, because we re spending a good deal of money every day fighting this war, and what we re talking about, the core of the conflict between