The Final Bid Reid To GOP: Drop Planned Parenthood Rider Or Cause A Government Shutdown

The Final Bid Reid To GOP: Drop Planned Parenthood Rider Or Cause A Government Shutdown: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has laid a final offer at Republicans' feet, and it will require them to drop their insistence on defunding Planned Parenthood, and accepting what Reid insists is an agreed upon level of spending cuts. If Republicans don't take it, and if Reid's not bluffing, the government will shutdown.

"No. Do not bend," he told reporters on Friday morning. "We do not curl, and not yield to the health of women."

The ball is now in the court effectively House Speaker John Boehner is. The Republicans have expressed their willingness to drop the pilot of Planned Parenthood, in exchange for more spending cuts. However, Reid said he would have agreed on a smaller number - 78 million below the budget request of President Obama last year, or about $ 38 billion in current spending. Reports this figure varies, even in the last hours.

After the meeting, I asked Reid if these expenses in total, both riders on the menu, not under the Planned Parenthood, represented the final offer.

"Yes, that's what we, yes," he said. "Look, we agreed that their numbers last night. They can not change the rules of the game."

After a White House meeting last night, "said Reid, who had been agreed that, outside a GOP plan to defund Planned Parenthood.

"The only thing left is the health of women," said Reid. It is a bridge too far, "he said." I am really worried that the government will stop "on the issue.

"In the presence of the President of the United States, we went through those they -- the Republicans -- felt were most important," Reid added. "We went through them one by one. They were all resolved -- except the rider dealing with Planned Parenthood."