in washington. u.s. congressional leaders are racing the clock. they re trying to hammer out a new budget by midnight friday night. if they fail to agree, parts of the u.s. government will shut down. that means no pay for hundreds of thousands of government workers and no funding for some federal programs. president obama says he s hopeful about getting a solution. john boehner, the speaker of the house of representatives and the senate leader harry reid put out this statement. we have narrowed the issues, however, we have not yet reached an agreement. we will continue to work through the night to attempt to resolve our remaining differences. our dana bash has been looking at some of the details that have been keeping the two sides apart. the house will come to order. reporter: one of the biggest disagreements is not over government spending but policy. some 40 or 50 policy restrictions that were attached to our bill. reporter: so-called policy riders, republicans call essentia
40 or 50 policy restrictions that were attached to our bill. there s far more than one provision that s holding up any agreement. compromise is a dirty word. they want no compromise. we don t have time to fight over the tea party s extreme social agenda. tea party politics is more important than damaging the economy and disrupting the lives of millions of americans. disastrous effect of a shutdown that you probably haven t heard about. a lot of these young troops live pretty much paycheck to paycheck. what to do about abortion, what to do about republican broadcasting. do not want taxpayer dollars used to fund electable abortions. they are also playing politics with a separate bill to keep the government running for just another week. if you vote against this bill, you are voting against the troops. we just recently tried to pass a continuing resolution but the republicans would not support that. they won t take yes for an
the current congressional salary, by the way, $174,000 a year. our cnn senior congressional correspondent dana bash is up on capitol hill with the latest developments. dana, specifically, where are the sticking points right now? reporter: look, wolf this is effectively a bill to fund the government. the sticking points certainly are about how much spending to cut that s what this whole issue has been about. however, however, one of the main issues, i am told that was discuss ted white house meeting this afternoon, with the president, the house speaker and the senate majority leader was over not necessarily spending measures but over lightning rod issues like regulating greenhouse gases and abortion. one of the biggest disagreements is not over government spend bug policy. some 40 or 50 policy restrictions that were attached to our bill. reporter: so-called policy riders republicans call signing and democrats call nonstarters. the most divisive is over
in january. and we had a wide-open process, involved hundreds and hundreds of amendments and days and days of debate. in the house, in its normal procedure for dealing with spending bills, attached policy riders to it. it s been a long-time practice of the house and the senate to not only set spending levels but also dictate how that money is to be spent. because the constitution requires us to determine how spending will occur. so the house worked its will, and there are some 40 or 50 policy restrictions that were attached to our bill. we sent it to the senate. i can t speak for the fact that the senate hasn t acted in 47 days. this whole process would have been a lot easier if the senate and the white house actually had a position, but they don t. and so the house has worked its will.
our goal is to make real spending cuts to support job creation in our country and failing to make real spending cuts will just send a signal that washington is not serious about dealing with the fiscal crisis that we face. it would further erode confidence in our economy and create additional uncertainty and hurt private sector job creation. americans are also concerned about how much we are spend bug also they are concerned about how we are spending it. that s why we are working not just for the most spending cuts possible but also common sense policy restrictions on how taxpayer dollars are spent. looking ahead, paul ryan and the budget committee put forward a jobs bunnell that s will deal with the drivers of our debt and get america on a plan to prosperity. but for all these things to work and to bear fruit, we need to end the spending binge in washington and we need to end it now.