While Republicans and Democrats try to shift blame for the spending impasse, the figures don't lie.
Your Nine-Number Guide to the Budget Battle
As Republicans and Democrats furiously negotiate a budget to fund the government for the last six months of the fiscal year, they're also furiously laying the groundwork to help them dodge any blame for a government shutdown if those talks fail. That makes it hard to figure out what's happening, given the divide between the talking points and what's happening behind closed doors. Here are the numbers we've pulled out of reports of last-minute discussions between the White House and Republicans as the April 8 deadline to pass federal funding draws closer.$40 billion: New number for budget cuts that House Speaker John Boehner says could win over House Republicans, Politico's David Rogers reports.
$7 billion: Increase in the amount of spending cuts that Republicans were demanding compared with last week, when reports said a $33 billion compromise was in the works.
1 week: Amount of extra time a budget stopgap proposal from Republicans would have kept the government funded, if President Obama had not rejected it Tuesday, The New York Times' Jennifer Steinhauer and Carl Hulse report.
$12 billion: Amount of spending cuts in that discarded proposal. The president says there's "no excuse" for not passing a budget for the last six months of the year.
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72 hours: Time legislation has to be posted online before it can be brought to a floor vote, according to House rules. But Republicans are considering suspending those rules to pass a last-minute budget before the April 8 deadline, Talking Points Memo's Brian Beutler reports.
1 hour, 15 minutes: Time that elapsed between the scheduled start of the White House meeting with House Republicans before Boehner tweeted "It's become sadly evident to me that the White House and Senate Democrats are just not serious yet about enacting real spending cuts," The Daily Caller's Jonathan Strong reports.
55.3 percent: Portion of respondents to a Wall Street Journal poll who, in response to the question, "How much would a government shutdown due to a budget impasse affect your life?" said "Not at all," "I don't know," or "I don't care."
81 percent: Portion of Republicans who say Obama is "just playing politics" in the budget battle. That's an 11 percent increase from late February, The Washington Post's Paul Kane and Jon Cohen report..
40 percent: Number of Republicans who think Congressional Republicans are playing politics. That's up 13 percent in the same time frame.
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