President Barack Obama called the Republican House Speaker John Boehner for a meeting in the White House to talk about preventing a government shutdown this weekend as Congress failed to reach an agreement with regards to the 2011 budget. The proposed bill that would have funded the federal agencies and impose spending cuts was stuck in Congress.

President-Obama Aside from President Obama and House Speaker Boehner, the meeting was attended by Vice President Joe Biden and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Coming to the meeting, President Obama is confident that the Democrats and the Republicans can agree on a compromise that will fund the government until the end of the year.

House Speaker Boehner pushes for a week long stopgap bill that can prevent the government shutdown. The temporary measure will slash $12 billion in spending but it would result to enough money to operate Pentagon until the end of September.

White House spokesman Jay Carney didn’t answer question on whether President Obama will support Boehner’s stopgap bill. But Carney stated that the White House believes that short-term spending bills are not good for the economy. The president warned that without a compromise, the government shutdown would be disastrous to the economy.