SHUTDOWN

Boehner: No Deal on Budget Yet

Speaker pushes back on reports shutdown averted.

You can return to panicking after all. Despite reports late Wednesday night that House Republicans were near a deal with the White House and Senate Democrats to pass a federal budget and avoid a government shutdown, Speaker John Boehner says there’s no agreement. The reports, which followed a trip by Vice President Joe Biden to Capitol Hill, suggested that the two sides had agreed to cut about $33 billion from President Obama’s proposed budget. But hardline fiscal conservatives in Boehner’s caucus have reacted angrily, saying such a deal wouldn’t go far enough to slashing the budget and eliminating a $1.5 trillion deficit. If the two sides can’t reach a deal by April 8, the government will shut down.