WASHINGTON (Reuters) – With time running out, an ideological fight in the US Congress over abortion and environmental issues threatened yesterday to derail an agreement to avert a government shutdown.
The mood swung between optimism and pessimism through the day as Democratic and Republican leaders held a whirlwind series of private meetings and public news conferences to plead their case for a budget deal that would keep the government operating beyond midnight tonight.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, and House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner, a Republican, met for more than an hour with
