Obama ups ante in budget row with Republicans
A US government shutdown loomed closer after a dramatic intervention by President Barack Obama failed to break political deadlock in a high-stakes battle to clinch a budget deal by Friday.
Obama upped the ante after he met top Republican and Democratic leaders at the White House on Tuesday, warning it would be "inexcusable" not to resolve the standoff this week.
His administration has already warned agencies to prepare to shutter the government.
"The only question is whether politics or ideology are going to get in the way of preventing a government shutdown," Obama said at an impromptu White House press conference.
A government shutdown could see hundreds of thousands of federal employees furloughed, national parks closed and non-essential services halted when the money approved by Congress for their operations runs out at midnight on Friday.
Shutdowns have unpredictable political consequences and Obama and his Republican foes are playing a game fraught with risk and uncertain results.
The last major US government shutdown caused by a political row, in 1995, helped reinvigorate the fortunes of then Democratic president Bill Clinton, who was locked in a fierce showdown with a conservative Republican Congress.
Obama's Democrats argue they have already offered $33 billion in cuts from current spending -- a figure Republicans dispute -- but a row is raging over where exactly they should be made.
The president, who has ruled out cuts in some spending on education, medical research and on environmental projects, called on all sides in Washington to "act like grownups", saying everybody should give "a little bit" to get a deal.
"It would be inexcusable for us to be not able to take care of last year's business," Obama said.
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