Hoyer says GOP threatening government shutdown by failing to compromise

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) on Wednesday morning offered no clues that Republicans and Democrats are close to a budget deal, and instead said the Republicans' failure to compromise is raising the risk of a government shutdown.

"Rather than compromise with President Obama and the Democrats in the Senate and the House, Republicans are threatening once again to shut down government, as they did in 1995," Hoyer said on the House floor.

Hoyer also rejected a GOP proposal to pass a one-week spending bill that would cut $12 billion in just the one week. Hoyer said this proposal "triples the ransom" for keeping the government open, an apparent reference to an earlier two-week spending bill that cut $4 billion in spending.

He also criticized Republicans for not only cutting discretionary spending in their one-week spending bill, but for fully funding Defense Department spending, and even increasing that spending by 1.5 percent over fiscal 2010 levels. Hoyer said this increase goes against earlier Republican promises to subject all agencies to cuts.

"We need a strong defense," he said. "But to take those dollars off the table is irresponsible and inconsistent with the representations that our Republican friends have made."

Hoyer said he thinks a full year of DOD spending was included in the bill because it would otherwise not be able to get the support of many Republicans. "They know that the only way to get their conference to support this spending bill is to bribe it with a year of defense spending left untouched," he said.