The day-to-day functions of government -- from running national parks to sending out tax refunds -- were hanging in the balance Wednesday as both chambers of Congress and the White House struggled to hammer out an elusive budget deal before funding runs out Friday, triggering a partial government shutdown.

Lawmakers appeared to be caught in a political perfect storm, with several simultaneous budget deals complicating negotiations over the rest of this year's budget.

Conservative lawmakers want to cut as much as possible now, to set the tone for talks over next year's budget and spending for the rest of the decade. GOP Rep. Paul Ryan just introduced a plan to cut deficits by $4.4 trillion over 10 years. President Obama and Democrats, by contrast, want to use a "scalpel," rather than an ax, to address the deficit...

(CNSNews.com) - The fiscal 2012 budget proposal unveiled today by House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan (R.-Wis.) offers sweeping reforms in federal spending, including defunding and repealing the health-care law signed last year by President Barack Obama and converting the federal share of the Medicaid program into block grants to state governments.

The Republican proposal says one of its aims is “making sure that not a penny goes toward implementing the new [health care] law” enacted last year.

This includes repealing about $800 billion in new taxes that were built into the law.

The proposed Republican budget resolution lists as one of its “key objectives” that it “Repeals and defunds the President’s health care law, advancing instead common-sense solutions focused on lowering costs, expanding access and protecting the doctor-patient relationship”...

House Republicans unveiled a budget proposal Tuesday that they claimed would avert a debt-driven "economic collapse" by cutting more than $6 trillion over the next decade.

The proposal, unveiled by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., would overhaul two major entitlement programs and impose caps on government spending, with the goal of stabilizing and eventually paying down the debt. It is literally trillions of dollars apart from the budget President Obama released earlier in the year, and its release marks the start of what is expected to be a drag-out budget fight in Congress.

"Our goal here is to leave our children and our grandchildren with a debt-free nation," Ryan said Tuesday. The congressman had tough words for Obama's 10-year budget plan, accusing the White House of speeding up the country's "descent into a debt crisis" by growing government...

House Speaker John Boehner dashed cold water Thursday on claims that the two parties had agreed on how much to cut from the rest of this year's budget, saying Republicans would "continue to fight" for an earlier budget proposal Democrats adamantly oppose.

Democrats had earlier claimed negotiators were working on a proposal for around $33 billion in spending cuts. Vice President Biden reported "good progress" on budget talks, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., went so far as to claim the parties had "agreed upon a number."

But while that target is indeed on the table, Boehner said Republicans have not agreed to it...

While the U.S. House of Representatives may have voted recently to defund NPR, the Obama administration is apparently giving money to the BBC.

The United States is currently giving a grant of $4.5 million to the BBC World Service Trust, a division of the British government doing development work around the globe.

Helle Dale of The Heritage Foundation wrote an article on the funding. She tells OneNewsNow: "The money we're giving it for is [for] media development, democracy promotion, and civil society programs in places like Nigeria, where there is a large journalism program that the BBC is running"...

Republicans are criticizing the Obama administration for its budget proposals.

A new estimate from the Congressional Budget Office said the White House has underestimated future deficits by $2.3 trillion over 10 years.

The report also found that the president's budget increases this year's deficit by $26 billion...

President Obama has signed a second short-term spending bill to keep the government running, this time through April 8, giving lawmakers more time to agree on a package of spending cuts Republicans are demanding.

Obama signed the bill Friday at the White House before he heads out on a five-day tour of Latin America.

Administration officials have met with top aides to Republican House Speaker John Boehner and Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to discuss budget cuts that would be included in a bill to fund the government through the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30...

The Republican-dominated House on Thursday voted to block taxpayer funding for National Public Radio programming, dealing another blow to the broadcasting network that already is reeling from a yearlong series of missteps.

Though the bill is not likely to pass the Senate and the White House issued a statement opposing the bill, it marks another black eye for NPR, which saw its chief executive officer and its top fundraising executive resign earlier this month after being filmed denigrating conservatives and the tea party.

“We’ve see NPR and its programming often veer far from what Americans would like to see as far as the expenditure of their taxpayer dollars,” said House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Virginia Republican. “Nobody is on a rampage; nobody is trying to say that we don’t like NPR for NPR’s sake. We’ve seen how they spend their money. It’s time to prioritize”...

As the Senate works to pass a House-approved short-term bill funding the federal government and debate begins on a long-term measure, a group of Senate Democrats have promised to not support anything de-funding Planned Parenthood.

Yesterday, the House approved the latest short-term continuing resolution on a 271-158 vote margin that does not de-fund Planned Parenthood. The Senate is expected to approve the bill and the battle over Planned Parenthood funding remains.

Some 54 Republicans voted against the measure because they wanted to see the Pence Amendment de-funding Planned Parenthood and the pro-life riders that stop abortion funding in various instances included in the measure. However, Senate Democrats have balked at those pro-life provisions and Republicans hoped to avoid being blamed for a government shutdown by insisting they be included in the short-term bill...

The federal government has been funded for another three weeks, but minus the Pence Amendment -- meaning funding for Planned Parenthood continues.

On Tuesday the House passed a Continuing Resolution (CR), which is the sixth temporary funding bill so far without agreement on a measure for the rest of the federal budget year. The CR, which now goes to the Senate, passed 271-158 (see roll call vote). It includes federal tax dollars for abortions in the nation's capitol and funds non-abortion services for Planned Parenthood...