Time short, tempers flare in budget showdown

"The division between the tea party and mainstream Republicans is preventing us from reaching a responsible solution ... and prevented negotiations from taking place over the weekend even as the clock ticks toward a government shutdown," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Monday.

Democrats also say that House Republicans insist on using House-passed legislation slashing more than $60 billion from the current-year budget as the starting point for talks, pulling back from an agreement with Boehner's office to work off a baseline essentially set at last year's levels.

Boehner appears to be in a no-win situation. Any agreement with Obama is sure to incite a revolt among hard-line tea party figures who want the full roster of cuts and an end to funding for Obama's signature health care law. And social conservatives are adamant that the measure cut off money for Planned Parenthood clinics that provide abortions in addition to the family planning services the government funds. Any attempts to outmuscle Obama with legislation that pleases tea partiers, however, would surely incite a shutdown.

One option circulating among Republicans is to use the Pentagon's budget to pass a short-term measure to avoid a shutdown but carry stiffer spending cuts than the $10 billion in bipartisan cuts to earmarks and domestic accounts achieved so far.