GOP, Dems inching towards short-term deal to avert shutdown?

“My guess is we’ll probably have some short-term extensions while we negotiate these things with spending cuts,” Republican Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin — the new chairman of the House Budget Committee and the architect of the spending cuts the chamber passed Saturday — told the CBS program “Face the Nation.”

Such a short-term extension, perhaps only a few days or weeks, would allow for tough talks on cuts in spending for the rest of this fiscal year that could set the tone for next year’s budget and beyond, Democrats say.

“We may need to extend slightly to give us a few more days to work it out,” Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Missouri, said on “Fox News Sunday.”