The first federal government shutdown in more than 15 years drew closer Tuesday as President Obama and congressional leaders failed to make progress on a budget for 2011 after back-to-back meetings at the White House and on Capitol Hill. 
 
 Obama and Congress remained billions of dollars apart and at odds over where to find savings after an 80-minute West Wing meeting that included House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) and Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.). In the meeting, Boehner floated the possibility that he may seek as much as $40 billion in cuts, $7 billion more than the two sides have been discussing for the past week. 
 
 Growing irked by the prolonged negotiations, Obama demanded that the congressional leaders “act like grown-ups.” 
 
 “If they can’t sort it out, then I want them back here tomorrow. And if that doesn’t work, we’ll invite them again the day after that,” Obama told reporters in a rare appearance in the press room, hours after the meeting. 
 
 The president invited congressional leaders back to the White House on Wednesday, but he is scheduled to spend much of the day traveling and, as of late Tuesday, no meeting had been finalized. 
 
 Boehner, who watched Obama’s remarks in his Capitol suites, pledged to keep talking. His aides deflected reports that the speaker is setting a new target of $40 billion in cuts, but he also rejected the $33 billion figure that Republican leaders in the House and Democratic leaders in the Senate had been working toward. 
 
 “There was no agreement, so those conversations will continue. We made clear that we’re fighting for the largest spending cuts possible,” Boehner told reporters moments after Obama spoke. 
 
 Reid continued to accuse Republicans of not being “fair and reasonable” in their demands for higher cuts and specific changes to social and regulatory policies. Asked if he would be willing to reach $40 billion in cuts, however, Reid demurred. 
 
 “I’m not negotiating here what we’re going to do ultimately,” he told reporters. 
 
 A late-day meeting between Boehner and Reid in the speaker’s office produced no breakthroughs, but aides to both lawmakers issued identical statements calling it “a productive discussion” — a significant shift in tone after a week in which the two traded accusations across the Capitol. 
 
 Reid closed the Senate chamber Tuesday evening with an optimistic speech describing “good faith” talks that are “not that far apart.” 
 
 “The government is not going to shut down — yet. There’s still air in the tire; at least we still have some miles to travel. I hope we have enough air in the tire to get us where we need to go,” he said. 
 
 A few days left 
 
 Without any resolution — either through a full spending plan or another short-term extension — the federal government would shut down at midnight Friday, with the full impact coming when the workweek resumes Monday. 
 
 Many of the most immediate effects of a shutdown would be felt in Washington, where the Smithsonian museums and other tourist sites would close, keeping as many as 500,000 visitors locked out of the city’s main attractions, according to senior government officials. If the impasse continues until Monday, a slew of other services would be halted, including the processing of tax refunds. 
 
 Aside from agreeing on how much to cut, two key stumbling blocks remain. One is a demand by Democrats to include roughly $10 billion in one-time cuts from programs such as Pell grants and farm subsidies. Republicans have rejected those cuts because they wouldn’t be permanent. On Tuesday, Boehner called such proposals “smoke and mirrors.” 
 
 Republicans cited the suggested cuts to rebut Obama’s oft-repeated claim that he has met the GOP “more than halfway” to its goal of cutting $61 billion from the government. Obama rejected that outlook Tuesday, calling his proposed Pell grant reductions “real cuts.” 
 
 Another impediment to a deal is Boehner’s insistence on attaching what are known as policy riders to the legislation. One such provision, approved as an amendment to the House bill in February, would keep open a mountain repository outside Las Vegas for storage of high-level nuclear waste — a plan Reid absolutely opposes for his state. 
 
 Political consequences 
 
 White House officials privately acknowledged that they have become wary of the political consequences of the spending battle, in part because a shutdown would reinforce the notion for many voters that leaders in Washington are unable to resolve key issues. 
 
 At the same time, White House officials are reluctant to agree to proposals that would inflame Obama’s liberal base, especially during the same week that the president launched his reelection campaign with a direct appeal to core supporters who provided the energy for his 2008 bid. 
 
 Boehner has struggled with his own political base, most prominently the tea party activists who propelled the major Republican victories in the 2010 midterm elections. Some of the 87 Republican freshmen who benefited from tea party support have resisted any compromise to their campaign pledge to slash spending to 2008 levels. 
 
 Many freshmen, however, are open to some form of compromise, though they aren’t sure about the right mix of spending cuts and policy riders. At this late stage, Boehner still has not sought input from the freshmen about where they would make deals, they said. 
 
 Instead of directly seeking their support for a specific plan, Boehner has made it clear that some kind of compromise is necessary, according to Rep. Kevin Yoder (R-Kan.), who said the speaker has encouraged the freshmen to “fight the battle on the highest ground possible.” 
 
 Yoder rejected the idea of “let’s shut down the government as a means to an end,” because at some point, he noted, the Republican-led House and the Democratic-led Senate will have to govern before the 2012 elections. 
 
 “Either the government shuts down until January 2013 [when a new Congress will arrive], or someday, there’s going to be a compromise,” he said. 
 
 Staff writers David Fahrenthold, Ed O’Keefe, Philip Rucker, Debbi Wilgoren and Felicia Sonmez contributed to this report. ||||| A visibly frustrated President Barack Obama emerged from a failed meeting on a budget deal Tuesday and said he would demand daily sessions with House Speaker John Boehner until an agreement was hammered out to prevent a U.S. government shutdown at week's end. 
 
 House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio walks past media after a closed conference meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, April 5, 2011. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) (Associated Press) 
 
 House Speaker John Boehner Ohio smiles from the back of an elevator after attending a closed conference meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, April 5, 2011. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) (Associated Press) 
 
 House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio follows a staff member as he walks past media after a closed conference meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, April 5, 2011. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) (Associated Press) 
 
 Obama spoke not long after Boehner's office issued a statement that insisted the two sides remained far apart and that Republicans had never, as the White House contends, agreed on $33 billion in cuts to the federal spending allotment for the remaining six months of the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30. 
 
 Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Boehner and Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid met in the White House Tuesday as the clock ticked toward a midnight Friday expiration of the government's spending authority. 
 
 "We are closer than we have ever been to an agreement. There is no reason why we should not get an agreement," Obama said in a surprise appearance in the White House reporters briefing room. 
 
 The president said Boehner and Reid were meeting later Tuesday, but if that session produced no agreement he would summon both men back to the White House Wednesday and daily thereafter, if necessary. 
 
 "Myself, Joe Biden, my team we are prepared to meet for as long as possible to get this resolved," Obama said. 
 
 Obama had barely finished speaking when Boehner strode before microphones to insist that the White House and Senate Democrats bow to demands for deeper cuts. Boehner is under extreme pressure from newly elected House members, many with allegiance to the ultraconservative tea party, to slash spending, the size of government and lower taxes. 
 
 Short of a long-term deal, Boehner has proposed an agreement that would keep the government running for one more week and cut another $12 billion in spending. Boehner has already orchestrated action by Congress to pass a pair of stopgap bills, so far cutting $10 billion from an estimated $1.2 trillion budget to fund the day-to-day operations of government through the fiscal accounting period. 
 
 Obama said he would only accept another short-term funding extension, of two or three days, to get a longer-term deal through Congress. But he ruled out a longer extension to allow negotiations to continue. 
 
 "That is not a way to run a government. I cannot have our agencies making plans based on two week budgets," Obama said. "What we are not going to do is once again put off something that should have been done months ago." 
 
 Boehner said Republicans "will not be put in a box" of accepting options they refuse to endorse. 
 
 Democrats accuse Republicans of pushing for harmful spending cuts and attaching a social policy agenda to the must-pass spending bill. Boehner counters that the White House is pressing gimmicky budget cuts. 
 
 As a government shutdown appeared increasingly inevitable, the White House has begun advising government agencies on the proper steps in preparation for a shutdown of the government. Republicans on Monday disclosed plans to instruct lawmakers "on how the House would operate in the event Senate Democrats shut down the government." 
 
 And in a memo to agency officials, the deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget, Jeffrey Zients, urged agency heads to refine and update contingency plans in the event negotiators don't strike a deal by Friday's deadline. 
 
 Boehner's one-week plan could reassure tea party-backed lawmakers who are among the most vocal in seeking to reduce the size and scope of the government. It could also put pressure on Democrats and the White House to offer greater spending cuts. 
 
 But there's no visible movement on an impasse over Republican policy riders attacking Obama's health care and financial reform laws, cutting taxpayer funds to Planned Parenthood and reversing a host of Obama's environmental policies. 
 
 On a separate long-term track, Republicans controlling the House have fashioned plans to slash the budget deficit by more than $5 trillion over the upcoming decade, combining unprecedented spending cuts with a fundamental restructuring of taxpayer-financed health care for the elderly and the poor. 
 
 House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan unveiled the Republican budget blueprint Tuesday morning just as Boehner headed to the White House. 
 
 Ryan's program includes a controversial proposal to convert the traditional Medicare health care program for the aged into a system by which private insurers would operate plans approved by the federal government. 
 
 Current Medicare beneficiaries or workers age 55 and older would stay in the existing system. 
 
 At the same time, Republicans propose to sharply cut projected spending on the Medicaid state-federal health program for the poor and disabled and transform it into a block grant program that gives governors far less money than under current estimates, but considerably more flexibility.
– President Obama sounded like an impatient parent today as the threat of a government shutdown grew larger. Admonishing lawmakers to "act like grownups," the president said John Boehner and Harry Reid would meet again later this afternoon, reports Politico. If nothing comes of it, Obama said he'll order them back at it again tomorrow. "We are closer than we have ever been to an agreement," said Obama. "There is no reason why we should not get an agreement." Boehner spoke immediately afterward, notes AP, and said Republicans would continue to "fight for the largest cuts possible." It's possible another stopgap spending measure can keep government open if no deal is in place by Friday, but the president said he will accept one only if it's good for just two or three days.