Dem offers new deal: End shutdown now, and GOP doesn’t have to apologize

“Let us vote on solutions to end this crisis. We don’t even need an apology for all the damage you’ve caused, for the $160 million a day that has undermined our economic recovery and economic losses from the shutdown.”

{mosads}Huffman said Democrats also wouldn’t demand apologies for the federal worker furloughs, closed national parks, and halt to life-saving medical research either.

“Just let us vote to end this crisis, and if you don’t, don’t bother apologizing, because the American people will never forgive the damage you have done to this country and to our standing in the world,” he said.

Huffman spoke just as House Republicans were assessing a bipartisan Senate plan to reopen the government and extend the debt ceiling until early next year. After meeting for more than an hour, Republicans announced they would try to pass an amended version that delays the medical device tax and ends healthcare subsidies for members of Congress and senior staff in Congress and the Executive Branch.

That plan, which had not been released as of Tuesday morning, reflects a GOP concession to allow the government to reopen immediately. In the past several days, Republicans wanted an agreement on 2014 budget levels before ending the shutdown.