Obama Calls Late-Night White House Meeting to Avoid Government Shutdown

After a day permeated by political accusations from all sides, President Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, will meet late this evening in the Oval Office to try to come to terms on keeping the government funded before time runs out on Friday.

Mr. Obama just hosted the two on Tuesday in a bid to work out differences on the size and scope of federal spending cuts, but that meeting and subsequent meetings failed to produce an agreement. The government is currently running on a temporary funding bill which is due to expire Friday at midnight.

On Tuesday, the president said if not enough progress was made among the leadership, he was going to keep summoning them back to the White House until the impasse was resolved. Reid and Boehner met privately Tuesday evening and reported they'd had a "productive discussion."

So much so that, as White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters, when Mr. Obama offered a second meeting this morning, he was denied. Carney says the leaders told Mr. Obama it was not necessary.

However, as the day transpired, each side toughened its rhetoric and appeared further apart than before.

"He has now decided that not enough progress has been made and therefore he has invited the Speaker of the House and the Senate Majority Leader to the White House at 8:45pm this evening."

While the battle over funding for the rest of this fiscal year continues, Speaker Boehner and President Obama agree there may be a need for yet another temporary spending bill.

If White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer's tweet is any indication, that may very well be the target for Wednesday's pow-wow. "@SpeakerBoehner and @SenatorReid are coming back to the White House at 8:45 PM at the President's request to discuss the CR," Pfeiffer said.